The Intelligent Potter
by PxFive
Summary: "From his own experience, Harry knew that luck had never been on his side. At that moment he decided that he wouldn't rely on luck to solve his problems, he had to become smart, beyond the norm and talk his way through life. That's the only way he could survive."
1. Prologue

**An: In this story, I'll be loosely following canon, but instead of luck, Harry will use his intelligence to get out of situations. He will be stronger than canon but not enough that he can be counted as 'op', at least not to an extent where** **Voldemort** **becomes a non-issue. This will be a humorous fic, to an extent and will exploit, to an extent, the lack of common sense that wizards have. I don't want to think of this as a crack-fic cuz its not, but you can think what you want of it.**

 **PS: I** **will** **be updating the Wizarding Bat, I've got about 900ish words of the chapter done but I'm trying to finish it.**

*** **One day in Harry's school library, when Harry is 8.**

Harry closed the lid on his latest book, another one from the fantasy genre. It was reasonably well written but the protagonist of the book made it through the entire story entirely on his good luck and a bunch of flukes.

From his own experience, Harry knew that luck had never been on his side. At that moment he decided that he wouldn't rely on luck to solve his problems but then came across the next dilemma.

How would he solve his problems?

The Dursleys' malnourishment of him meant that he wouldn't be becoming particularly strong anytime in the near future.

He had to become smart, beyond the norm and talk his way through life.

That would be the only way he could survive.

*** **Privet Drive, when harry is 11**

"Fetch the mail, _boy._ " Vernon ordered Harry.

Harry silently went and retrieved the mail, flicking through all of the letters quickly, while walking back to the dining room.

He stopped dead in his tracks at the last letter.

 _Mr. Harry J Potter_

 _Cupboard under the stairs, Privet Drive, Surrey_

There was a letter for him! He had never received a letter before, and he knew that Vernon would never let him read it if he ever saw the letter.

On his way to the dining room, Harry slid the letter into his cupboard before reaching the breakfast table and giving the mail to Vernon and silently moving to clear the plates, which Vernon and Dudley had demolished, including the one piece of toast that Harry had.

Harry didn't bother protesting.

Vernon put down the mail with a satisfied grunt, "What took you so long, boy?"

"I slipped and dropped the mail." Harry lied with a straight face that showed regret.

Vernon sneered, "Shoulda expected it of a freak like you."

Harry nodded quickly and almost sprinted to his cupboard. When he was inside, he eagerly opened his letter.

 _Dear Mr. Potter,_

 _You have been admitted into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, please send you acceptance by owl, no later than the 30th of August this year. The first day of school will be on the 1st of September,_

 _Yours,_

 _Assistant Headmistress_ _McGonagall_

Below the letter was a list of ridiculous sounding books and things to buy.

Harry's heart sunk a bit, but he held some hope. He didn't know what an owl was, so he nicked a pound from Dudley and stole a sheet of a4 paper from Vernon and mailed an acceptance letter to 'Hogwarts'.

He had little hope that it was actually going to work, but sending a letter wouldn't hurt right?

In his letter he had included that he needed proof that magic existed.

*** **Next Day**

The Dursleys heard three sharp raps on their door, just after dinner.

"Open the door, boy."

Harry nodded and went to open the door, and saw an old woman standing outside in extremely old fashioned clothing.

"Hello, I'm Harry, who might you be?" Harry asked politely.

Minerva nodded, "I'm Professor McGonagall, Harry, it's my job to introduce muggle-borns and muggle-raised to the wizarding world."

At this she frowned, "Though it was expected that your aunt and uncle would already have explained the wizarding world to you."

Harry snorted inwardly and was about to answer when Vernon bellowed from the dining room.

"BOY, WHO'S AT THE DOOR!"

Minerva's lips thinned a bit at the derogatory tone in Vernon's voice.

Harry had to think fast, he couldn't lie because McGonagall would become suspicious, but telling the truth would risk the Dursleys throwing McGonagall out of the house altogether.

In the end he decided to tell the truth, "Somebody from a place named Hogwarts." Harry said softly, hoping for the best.

Vernon stormed into the room.

"Look here, I won't be paying for some fool to teach the freak magic tricks." Vernon snapped at McGonagall.

McGonagall's lips thinned some more.

"Mr. Potter will be attending Hogwarts no matter what a muggle like you thinks of it." She said back before ignoring Vernon completely.

McGonagall pointed her wand at a chair in the corner of the drawing room and levitated the chair.

"At Hogwarts, you will learn several branches of magic, including Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Defence against the Dark Arts among others…"

McGonagall took a breath, "Let me also warn you that due to events that took place while you were a baby, you've become a somewhat famous personality in the wizarding world. Would it be convenient if I took you to Diagon Alley tomorrow?"

Harry smiled politely, "If you give me the directions and the money, I'm sure I could find my way myself."

McGonagall shook her head. "I'm afraid that muggle-raised are to be escorted to Diagon Alley on their first visit."

Harry cursed inwardly but smiled outwardly. "Then sure, we can go tomorrow afternoon, it is a Saturday."

As soon as McGonagall left, Harry was shouted at, kicked in the ribs and thrown into his cupboard in Vernon's fit of anger.

*** **Next afternoon**

McGonagall picked up Harry when she was supposed to, noticing but not commenting on Harry's very well hidden wince as he walked.

She gave him a cap to wear before they reached a dirty looking pub that everybody else in the vicinity seemed to ignore.

McGonagall led him through the pub, exchanging a few words with the bartender, Tom, before she took him out the back.

"To get into Diagon Alley, you need to swipe your wand, when you get it, along the bricks like this." McGonagall demonstrated and the wall moved aside to let them through into the bustling magical alley.

Harry stared around in barely concealed wonder. McGonagall hid a smile at his reaction.

"Our first stop will be the Wizarding Bank, Gringotts. Your parents left you their sizeable fortune. We will be making a withdrawal from your trust vault."

They walked up to the teller.

McGonagall nodded respectfully.

"What may I do for you?" the teller asked coolly.

"Mr. Potter would like to make a withdrawal from his trust vault."

The goblin nodded, "Key, please."

McGonagall provided the key, pulling it out of her purse.

The teller, 'Griphook', led them to a cart and belted them in, and sat at the front, as the cart took off at high speeds, falling and rising rather like a roller coaster.

Harry thought that it was designed that way to disorient passengers so that potential thieves couldn't find their way around the underground tunnels of Gringotts.

With a screeching halt they reached Harry's vault.

"You will have to wait outside, Professor." Griphook stated.

McGonagall nodded and waited in the cart.

Harry went inside the vault with the goblin and filled the pouch that McGonagall had given him to the brim with golden galleons, taking as much money as possible.

"McGonagall said this was a trust vault. Does that mean that I have a family vault too?" Harry asked, while filling his pouch with money.

"You do have the Potter family vault but you may not access it till you are 17 or emancipated by the ministry." Griphook stated emotionlessly.

Harry nodded and went back out with his pouch of galleons.

"That's more money than you will need." McGonagall stated.

Harry flashed her an innocent smile. "This way I don't have to come back to get my money for Christmas presents."

McGonagall nodded her acceptance. "Just don't waste it all on candy or anything like that."

"Yes Professor." Harry said.

The first place that McGonagall took Harry too was Madam Malkins, the clothing shop.

Harry inwardly wrinkled his nose at how impractical wizarding robes were but smiled politely and stood completely still while Malkin measured him and the boy standing next to him.

"Hogwarts too?" the blonde next to him asked.

"Yes." Harry said.

The Blonde extended a hand.

"Draco Malfoy."

"Harry."

"Named after the whole 'Potter craze' were you?" Draco asked.

Harry smiled sheepishly, "Yes."

'Potter craze? Am I that famous!?' Harry thought.

"What house do you think you'll be in?" Draco asked.

Harry hadn't heard about the houses yet, so he answered vaguely.

"Don't know yet, do we." Harry said, making his question sound rhetorical but still there, in case he _was_ supposed to know.

"No, I suppose we don't, but I _know_ I'll be in Slytherin." The blonde puffed out his chest self-importantly.

Draco finished first and his father walked into the store to pick him up.

Nobility, Harry noted, while Draco and his father walked off.

After the clothing shop, Harry was taken to the bookstore.

Harry smiled widely.

"I'll pick up your potions ingredients and you can pick up the books on your list." McGonagall said, before taking two galleons from him and bustling off as if she had done it a million times before.

Harry quickly picked up his school books before picking up a few on customs and traditions, some on Runes and Arithmancy and a few other texts he thought would be useful to keep himself ahead of the class. He also picked up some books that claimed to be about him.

McGonagall came to pick him up and muttered 'Ravenclaw' when she saw the pile of books that Harry had picked up.

Next, McGonagall took Harry to Ollivanders wand shop.

Harry didn't let himself look rattled by Ollivander's speech which left the creepy old man looking somewhat disappointed.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, I've been expecting you. I'm sorry to say that I sold the wand that did that."

Ollivander reached out a hand and touched Harry's scar. Harry had to work hard to not flinch at Ollivander's touch.

After a long line of wands, Harry finally found one that responded to him.

"Aah! SO curious, very curious." Ollivander commented.

"What is?" Harry asked.

"The phoenix that gave the feather for this wand also gave the feather for the wand of you-know-who!"

Harry looked slightly confused. "Who?"

"The man who killed your parents." McGonagall whispered.

"Oh." Harry didn't know how to respond.

He numbly paid the 7 galleons, thinking about this you-know-who fellow.

McGonagall handed him a cage.

"Here, I bought you something for your birthday."

It was a snowy owl.

"Thank you!" Harry responded.

McGonagall almost smiled. "What will you name it?"

"Hedwig."

*** **Hogwarts Express**

McGonagall had explained how to get to the Hogwarts Express, Harry managed to wheedle Vernon to take him to Kings Cross at the threat of the 'freaks' showing up again.

He had arrived early and picked an empty cabin.

A red-headed boy opened the door to his cabin.

"Can I sit here, everywhere else is full."

"Sure." Harry smiled back.

"Hi, I'm Ron, Ron Weasley."

"Harry."

"Blimey! Are you Harry Potter!"

Seeing no way out other than outright lying, Harry nodded, already taking a dislike to the redhead.

"Yes."

"Are you really!"

"That is what I just said."

"Do you remember that night!?" Ron asked excitedly, irritating Harry some more.

He had read the book about what had happened. Apparently, the dark wizard Voldemort had shot a killing curse at him but it had been reflected back onto Voldemort and killed him instead, and Harry had been hailed as the saviour of the wizarding world, personally Harry found the story laughable. Obviously, it had been his parents who had done something. With his extremely rudimentary knowledge of runes, he knew that it was very easily possible to reflect the killing curse as long as there was an equal powering source, in this case the taking of one soul, which considering both his parents died before him was quite possible yet all of the rune experts of the wizarding world were clueless about the possibility. Harry had vowed to do more research into runes and such.

Harry politely said that he didn't remember anything as he was but a baby at the time and the awkward silence returned.

A bushy haired girl burst into their cabin, interrupting Harry's musing.

"Have you seen a toad, Neville's lost one." She said in a rush.

"No, but you could ask one of the older students to summon the toad." Harry suggested.

Harry had practised a lot of spells but the summoning spell was 4th year, and quite a bit further than he had tried, though he knew the incantation.

"Oh, I didn't think of that, thanks!" the girl said and left.

"Mental, that one." Ron said rudely.

"She was only helping this Neville fellow." Harry defended her, lightly.

"Probably Neville Longbottom, the squib." Ron snorted unattractively.

Harry frowned lightly. "If Neville were a squib, he wouldn't be on the Express going to a school of Wizardry."

Ron rolled his eyes.

Harry found himself quite disliking Ron and his rude tendency to talk shit about people he didn't know.

Harry pulled out his book and started reading.

"Why're you reading?" Ron asked incredulously.

Harry looked over his book.

"To gain knowledge." Harry said, politely.

"But! But! You're Harry Potter, you can't be bookish!" Ron almost shouted.

Harry's expression hardened a bit and he looked back at his book.

He _really_ didn't like the redhead's attitude toward books.

*** **Hogwarts**

With the rest of the students, Harry took the boats to Hogwarts.

He nodded politely at McGonagall while she was giving her 'House is family' speech.

He ignored Ron's exclamation that they would have to fight a troll.

He clapped after the hat's song and waited his turn, not showing any of the nervousness he was feeling about the sorting.

"Potter, Harry." Called out McGonagall.

Harry stepped forward confidently and walked up to the podium, ignoring Draco's 'you didn't tell me you were the Harry Potter!'

Harry sat on the stool and let the hat be put on his head, feeling nervous. He really disliked the idea of the hat being able to see all his memories.

"Oh ho, what do we have here! You'd be an amazing Slytherin…" the hat spoke in his head.

Harry agreed, personally, but he couldn't let himself be perceived as a 'filthy snake' by the rest of the school.

"You do know that that is even more reason to put you in Slytherin." The Hat sounded amused.

"I will be in Gryffindor." Harry thought back.

"Very well…" The hat sighed, "If you must, then, GRYFFINDOR!" the last word was shouted out.

Harry took off the hat and headed to the table which was dressed up in red and had two more red-heads shouting about how they got Potter and noted that Draco was looking disappointed at his sorted and a little disgusted.

Harry sat down next to Hermione, the bushy haired girl from the train, who started rattling off what the books said about Harry.

Harry smiled lightly. "The books about me are all false."

Hermione looked almost comically enraged. "But books are _always_ right!" she shouted.

Harry smiled. "Who was there to witness what actually happened that night."

Hermione frowned and fell into the trap, "You and Voldemort."

Harry inwardly laughed at all the flinches that people gave at the Dark Lord's name.

"I can assure you that I've never given an interview and Voldemort is dead, so where does your book get its facts from?"

Hermione looked extremely stunned.

"I-I…"

Harry smiled lightly at her, "Just something to think about."

*** **Next Day**

Harry woke up early at 5 am, and had a quick bath before returning and reading some more, practising some late 1st year spells till 6:30-ish, when some other boys in the dorm started to stir.

Harry headed down to breakfast early and had a quick and light breakfast before taking out his book on an art known as Occlumency and started reading.

He received his timetable, along with incredulous books from Ron, for reading a book and he went to his first class, Transfiguration with McGonagall.

He got to class, barely on time and waited for McGonagall to arrive before noticing a cat next to McGonagall's table and remembered that she was a cat animagus.

Harry winked at the cat, who stared at Harry.

Ron and another boy from Harry's dorm, Seamus, landed up late for class.

McGonagall transformed from the cat into herself and got a few screams and surprised looks.

She lectured them for a while before giving them a matchstick and telling them the incantation to turn it into a needle.

Harry took and deep breath and performed the transfiguration, pushing his magic into his wand, magnifying it and saying the incantation and imagining the needle he wanted, intricate and silver.

It took a long second, but the matchstick turned into a needle with a soft pop.

McGonagall swept over to Harry.

"5 points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, amazing needle, first try too! 5 more points because of the intricacy."

McGonagall just got back to the front of the class, as Hermione managed to finish her transfiguration.

"Ms. Granger's done it too! 5 more points to Gryffindor." McGonagall said pleased that 2 people had completed the complex transfiguration in such quick succession.

Harry worked on trying to make his transfiguration more intricate. He tried to engrave a pattern into his needle and managed, though he began to start sweating.

McGonagall picked up the engraved needle, admiring the pretty if simple pattern on the small needle.

"Good job, Mr. Potter, but remember not to exhaust yourself."

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: 3k words! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the first chapter of whatever I decide to name this. Also, 3k words!**

 **An: This chapter has been edited VERY slightly.**

 **Px5 out.**


	2. Potions, Charms and Occlumency

**An: Thanks for all the favs and follows so far as well as the 2 reviews, I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

 ***** Potions class**

They didn't cover anything but theory in charms, which Harry listened to avidly, despite knowing most of what was being taught, after all, it's foolish to ever pass up a chance to learn new information.

He was looking forward to Potions quite a bit, it seemed like one of the most important subjects, but what he had heard about it, by listening in on conversations was mostly really negative.

Harry had read ahead, the entire textbook, so he was hoping that he wouldn't fall behind in his Potions education if the teacher did turn out to be subpar.

The Potions Master strode into the classroom, robe billowing behind him, scowl on his face, and oily hair sticking to his head.

'I have to know how he does the cloak billowing thing', Harry thought.

Snape stood at the front of the class.

"The art of potions requires no foolish wand waving, so I doubt any of you dunderheads will be able to get it… but if you can truly learn the art of pioneering, in this class you can learn to bottle fame, brew a fortune and put a stopper on death."

He sneered at the entire class.

"But if you're the usual dunderheads that I have to teach, then I'll be rid of you come OWL year."

He glared at Harry particularly and began to take attendance.

"Harry Potter, our new… celebrity…" Snape called out, his malicious intent obvious in his voice.

Harry idly noticed all of Snape's intimidation tactics and noted them down in case he needed to use them later.

"Lets see if you've done your reading shall we? Potter! Where would you find a bezoar!"

"In the stomach of a goat, sir." Harry replied respectfully.

"What's the difference between monkswood and wolfsbane." Snape snapped back.

"They are one and the same, sir."

Snape looked at him appraisingly before looking away and ignoring him and continuing with the roll call.

"Instructions on the board, begin, you have half an hour." Snape said, flourishing his wand and leaving the instructions on the board.

Ron started to complain loudly, and Snape deducted 10 points from Gryffindor.

Harry inwardly rolled his eyes. Snape was no great shakes as a teacher but complaining and insulting him would only make him worse.

Harry started on his own potion, and found that his cooking skills helped him quite a bit in his cure for boils, he quickly and efficiently completed his potion in 25ish minutes and bottled it, handing it to Snape, and wondering what his reaction would be to his nearly perfect potion.

Snape studied the vial carefully and far more critically than he had looked at Malfoys'.

"Hmmm, passable…" Snape reluctantly said, putting an A into his grade book.

"I'll try to do better next time, sir." Harry offered politely, while still inwardly knowing that his potion was easily worth an O.

Still, Snape would not be conducting the end-of-years, so Harry did not have to worry about his potions OWLs and NEWTs as long as he kept up his standard of work.

*** **After Harry's potions class**

Snape stared after the departed class, reevaluating his thoughts on the spawn of James Potter. He had expected him to be a carbon copy of the late Lord Potter, arrogant, not studying, laughing through potions, but instead Harry was polite and submitted a potion that was even better than Draco's. Still, the boy _was_ related to James Potter but still, MAYBE, he wasn't as bad as he'd thought he'd be.

Snape grudgingly changed the A in his book into an O, deciding to wait, just a bit, before condemning the Potter child altogether.

*** **Defence class**

Defence was the most useless class that Harry had ever sat in. At least in Potions, they were learning something by making Potions, even if Snape was a bad teacher, but in Defence, Quirrell stuttered the entire time, reading the first paragraph of a textbook that Harry had read and deemed useless.

Harry zoned out Quirrell, instead picking up his book on occlumency and reading the third stage. The first had been objectifying his memories as books and the second had been, organising them into a library of sorts.

Harry started reading.

 _The third stage of Occlumency is building your mental defences. The most important thing to remember while performing this stage is that inside your mind, you control everything. This stage if often easier for younger people purely because their imagination runs wilder and is less controlled. There have been recorded instances of children pushing adults violently out of their minds while just imagining toy soldiers or the like._

 _For this stage, you must locate your 'mental library' and anchor all your defences around it. You must imagine walls around the library, and there will be walls. You can imagine your own defences as well, your only restriction is your imagination. At first, you will need to concentrate on your defences to keep them up, but once you have thought up walls and some basic defences, and can keep them there for an extended period of time, by concentrating on it, you are ready to move on to step 4._

Harry put down the book. He doubted that he would be allowed to meditate in Quirrell's classroom, or any classroom for that matter, he did not want to give the impression that he was sleeping in class to any of his teachers, even Quirrell.

He picked up his occlumency book again and was about to start reading step 4, when a piercing pain hit his scar.

Harry's hand immediately shot up to his scar. Quirrell was looking at him quite intently, and Harry realised, behind the curtain of pain, the tickling sensation of legilimency, the art of invading his mind.

With a little concentration, Harry finally got a chance to put his theoretical Occlumency knowledge to the test, the boy put up walls and cannons, and started blasting the intruder, who he assumed to be Quirrell without a second thought. It was only after he'd managed to catch Quirrell by surprise and knock him over, throwing off his virtual cloak, that he realised it wasn't Quirrel who was snooping around in his mind.

It was Voldemort.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: I do love my cliffhangers. :-)**

 **Px5 out.**


	3. Telling Hermione

**find** **An: I hope you enjoy, I'm writing this back to back with chapter 2, so thank you for any possible favs, follows and comments.**

 ***** DaDa class**

Almost before Harry could get a glimpse, Voldemort exited Harry's mind. Quirrell's face snapped to look at Harry incredulously.

Remembering what he had read about kids making accidental protections, Harry pretended to be doodling on his parchment, he doodled walls and cannons and drew a knight for good measure.

Quirrell/Voldemort carefully entered Harry's mind again and this time found the wall and the cannons, firing in the opposite direction, as well as a knight riding a unicorn and a Dumbledore-esque old wizard brandishing a wand in squiggly motions that were obviously not real spells.

Voldemort carefully exited Harry's mind, his relief that he hadn't been discovered was enough to give Harry enough proof that he had managed to fool Voldemort into thinking he was daydreaming.

He almost slumped back into his chair before remembering that Quirrell/Voldemort was still sitting at the front of the class and observing him, while continuing his stuttering act, which Harry could see through easily, now that he knew it was Voldemort who was lecturing them.

Harry resolved to find out what sort of dark magic Voldemort had used to look like the Defence professor. After considering, he decided that it was also possible that both Quirrell and Voldemort were in the same body. Either way, he decided to keep an eye on Quirrell and research what The Dark Lord was doing to impersonate/possess him.

*** **Library**

After Defence, Harry rushed off to the library, walking fast but not fast enough to seem in too great a hurry.

He got to the library and found mainly 5th years and above, with the occasional 3rd year floating around.

Them and Hermione Granger.

The girl had been in his defence class with him and had gotten to the library even faster than he had. Hell, she seemed to almost live in the place anyway.

She peered over her thick book, "Harry, what are you looking for!" she said bossily.

"Come on, I'm nearly done with my book on supplementary Potions. I could help you research whatever you're looking for."

Harry smiled at the pushy girl and declined, "Sorry Hermione, I'm just doing some general looking, I don't need your help."

"Come on, I can look with you." Hermione looked at him hopefully.

Harry realised that staying in the library all day, the one place where literally no first years apart from himself and Hermione had come yet was probably not the best place to make friends or socialise, Hermione was probably just trying to befriend him.

Harry felt his heart go out to the poor girl. He could sympathise with Hermione, because he didn't have any friends either and before he learned that Dudley was preventing everybody in his school from befriending him, he would also talk to others who went to the library, hoping to find a friend.

With a sigh, Harry decided that he would talk to Hermione. His analytical side screamed at him that it would be wasting time and he would need to make explanations and waste valuable research time, but for the first time in 3 years, Harry decided to ignore his analytical side and just go with his impulsive response to just accept her help.

With a start, he realised that he had been staring at her for a full 10 seconds.

He grinned sheepishly, "Sure, come on and I'll tell you what I've been reading about."

Hermione smiled, hoping she had made a friend and moved to stand and walk with Harry.

They started walking and Harry started towards the section on the mind arts.

"I've been reading up on Occlumency and Legilimency, I've progressing quite well on learning some Occlumency."

Hermione looked at him weirdly, "Occlumency is supposed to be really hard to do and it's almost never given to anybody under 15."

"It's actually easier the younger you are, because the imagination part of it, is far easier when you are younger and have a better and less restricted imagination. The reason many people think that Occlumency should not be taught to children is because it requires a large amount of patience and focus to keep your shields up and many children tend not to have the required concentration time."

Harry gave Hermione a short appraising look.

"People who read a lot of books, specifically non-fiction tend to be able to concentrate better as well as people who are focussed enough on one activity to spend lots of time to become good at it. The kind of meditation that this kind of concentration is required for, is also integral for the animagus transformation and wandless magic."

Harry looked back at Hermione who was looking almost hungrily at him, ready to absorb more knowledge.

Harry laughed, genuinely.

"I'll lend you some of my books."

Hermione enveloped him in a crushing hug and it took all of Harry's self-control not to stiffen and to sort of return the hug.

Hermione separated and blushed, "Sorry, I'm just really happy, I love books." She explained as if Harry was somehow unaware of the fact.

"Just make sure that you're reading the right books and not speculation or opinion posed as fact." Harry cautioned her.

Hermione looked somewhat offended, "Books are meant to tell the truth!"

Harry sighed at Hermione's naiveté.

"Anybody can write a book; it doesn't have to tell the truth. Make sure that other books can corroborate the stories and that you know where the information is coming from."

Harry looked at Hermione seriously, "Believing things you are told blindly can be the biggest mistake you ever make."

Hermione nodded numbly and opened her mouth to counter argue but closed it again. Harry's points were fair, and the emotion she heard in his last statement sounded like he had some experience.

"Fair enough, I will." Hermione found herself agreeing to Harry.

Harry smiled again, deciding to share his topic of research with the avid researcher that Hermione was. She might not have the general smarts that Harry did, but she was a much faster researcher than he.

"Today in Defence class, Professor Quirrell tried to use legilimency to enter my mind. Only, when I managed to stop him and he left my mind, I saw a glimpse of his face… and it wasn't professor Quirrell, it was… Voldemort."

Hermione looked at him sceptically, "But Harry, you killed Voldemort." She said as if talking to a toddler.

Harry shook his head, "I'm sure of what I saw, it made my scar hurt too."

"Just because you got a headache doesn't mean Voldemort is Professor Quirrell, you're the one who told me to check my facts."

"Trust me, I know what I saw, Voldemort is either impersonating or possessing Quirrell. If there was any way to show you, I would."

Hermione looked at him considering, "There is an heirloom pensieve in the Headmaster's office, I've read about it in 'Hogwarts, A History', we could sneak into Professor Dumbledore's office and take a look at your memory."

Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head, "One: It's stupid to even try to get into the Headmaster's office, 2: we'll get caught almost immediately, there's no way that idea would work."

"Oh." Hermione said, somewhat crestfallen.

"But your idea does have some credit, only, I can ask Griphook, whether I have a pensieve in the Potter vault and whether I can retrieve it, otherwise I can buy it, they're supposed to be expensive, but really useful and I do have the money."

Hermione took a long look at him, "Okay then, if you can obtain a pensieve and prove to me that Voldemort is back, then I'll help you research." Now looking a whole lot more frightened as Harry had expected her to be, the possibility finally sinking in, that the greatest Dark Lord of their time could have returned.

*** **End of Chapter.**

 **An: I was so tempted to end the chapter when Harry tells Hermione about Voldy invading his mind. Harry told Hermione because it is sensible that 2 people can research better than 1, and he knows he can't do everything alone, telling Hermione is partially sympathy and partially a calculated risk.**

 **Px** **Five** **out.**


	4. The Pensieve arrives and Unicorn Blood?

**An: For whatever reason, Fanfiction isn't saying 'updated: few secs ago' like it usually does, so if you see like 3 chapters in like 1 minute don't be too surprised.**

 ***** Gringotts**

Griphook picked up a letter off his desk, he usually had several to answer, and he usually started from the top of the pile of letters, but this particular letter, though it was near the bottom of the pile, caught his attention.

It was addressed to 'Teller Griphook' as opposed to 'Gringotts Teller'

He opened the letter, noting it was from Mr. Potter, who he had helped, just before the school year had started.

He slit the letter open with an official Gringotts letter opener.

 _Dear Mr. Teller Griphook,_

 _May your enemies blood taste the ground,_

 _I was wondering whether the Potter family owns any pensieves, and if they do, whether it would be possible to withdraw it from the Potter vault despite my being only 11 years of age, and not Lord Potter yet,_

 _May the gold of your enemies fill your vaults,_

 _Your customer, Harry James Potter._

Griphook was surprised that Potter had followed goblin customs of speech and respected him as his position demanded.

He was pleased that he could answer in the affirmative and just because of Harry's courtesy, mailed it along with the letter back.

*** **Hogwarts, next morning**

Hedwig flew into the Hall, slightly late, heaving a large package which she dropped onto the table in front of Harry immediately and pecked his ear for snacks.

Harry passed Hedwig an owl snack and kept his package under the table and continued reading his book.

Hermione, who was sitting opposite him, gave him a meaningful look. Harry nodded back.

Dumbledore, who was on his way out of the hall stopped near Harry.

"Ah, Harry, my boy, your large package peaked my curiosity, if I'm not too prying, what was in the box?"

Harry looked down at the box rather than look at Dumbledore.

"Just some books I really liked in the Hogwarts library and wanted to have permanently, I owl-ordered the books so that I could keep them.

Dumbledore nodded politely and moved on, wondering what books Harry was interested in, but encouraged that Harry seemed to be studying.

*** **Later, secluded part of the library**

Harry and Hermione were in a really secluded part of the library, hidden between several awkwardly angled shelves, Harry and Hermione had dragged in a pair of armchairs and a table.

Harry pulled out his pensieve, it was a large engraved affair with the Potter crest which happened to be the talons of a griffin criss-crossed against an intricate letter 'P'.

It was far better than Dumbledore's and had the ability to project memories rather than the 'traditional form' of a pensieve which allowed one to view the memory only inside itself.

Harry entered his own memory, and Hermione watched as Harry paused the memory just as Voldemort was blasted back in the memory.

It was only there for a split second but there was no denying that it was The Dark Lord.

"We have to tell Dumbledore!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry shook his head, he did not want to reveal his skill in Occlumency and his possession of a pensieve to the Headmaster.

"No, Hermione, I would have to reveal that I can do a level of Occlumency and I don't think that's a good idea."

Hermione looked puzzled, "But… what's the point of having knowledge if you don't tell people you have it?"

Harry sighed, this was definitely one of Hermione's biggest problems.

"You don't gain knowledge to flaunt it, Hermione, knowledge is to be used in your own advantage, whether revealing it is a good idea or not depends on the situation." Harry said, that was how he viewed knowledge, useful and to be used in your own favour, if revealing it got people on your side then so be it, but in this case, Harry didn't want to reveal his Occlumency skills unless absolutely necessary.

He had been lucky to fool Voldemort with his childish trick and he knew he would have to be more careful with his Occlumency as well as subtler.

"But telling Professor Dumbledore will only help us, he's the only one that Voldemort fears!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry sighed, unsure how to explain.

"A skill like Occlumency is very useful to have, and especially when my skills are not very advanced, its not very helpful if a legilimencer knows what to expect." Harry said.

"But Professor Dumbledore won't use legilimency on a student!"

"Dumbledore is one of the greatest legilimancers of our age." Harry said, "It would be too tempting to be able to just know what happened at a confrontation, I won't risk it."

Hermione opened her mouth as if to protest but then decided to just trust Harry on this.

Neither she nor Harry would know how good of a decision that would turn out to be.

*** **Later, Library**

So far, both Harry's and Hermione's search had been fruitless, and Harry was thinking about just giving up and continuing the next day.

"Harry!" Hermione said excitedly, pointing to a short sentence in a thick book.

 _The Power of Unicorn's blood is one of the most magical substances in the world. Despite their magical properties, when it is forcefully extracted, it is no longer light magic and only the most desperate Dark Wizards would ever resort to using the blood of a unicorn. It magnifies dark blood magic rituals to a great extent, perhaps best exemplified in the life sustenance ritual, which could theoretically keep a soul alive within a host. Fortunately, there are no dark wizards foolish enough to actually try it, because once unicorn's blood is consumed, the user is cursed to live a half-life._

Hermione pointed to the sentence about theoretically keeping a soul alive.

"That could be it!" Hermione squealed.

Harry looked at it skeptically, "Would Voldemort be dumb enough to curse his own life?"

Hermione looked crestfallen.

"It's still a possibility, just… I don't think Voldemort would do something like that… unless he thinks he can break the curse."

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Hope ya enjoyed I guess!**


	5. Visiting Hagrid

*** **Hogwarts**

School continued, boring as ever, Harry and Hermione continued their research in the library, far beyond their age group in terms of research.

Harry and Hermione competed for top spot in most of their classes, Harry got top in Transfiguration, Charms and DaDa (as useless as that was), Hermione got top marks in Potions, History and Astronomy.

Over time, Harry and Hermione started to become close friends, as close a friend as Harry had ever had.

*** **Library**

Harry had called Hermione to their spot in the library, which they had feebly protected with a notice-me-not charm that wouldn't even affect any strong adults looking for them, but did its job to keep out the random Ravenclaw looking for a place to sit.

Hermione came second, Harry already there with a large book open.

Without waiting for pleasantries, Harry pointed at a passage in the book.

 _The Philosopher's stone, one of the rarest alchemical wonders of all time is rumoured to be able to produce the elixir of life, capable of extending life indefinitely and lift all curses, perhaps even up to 6x curses._

Hermione looked puzzled, "What does that have to do with Voldemort possessing Quirrell, the philosopher's stone extends lifetimes but it doesn't prevent death from a straight up AK."

Harry shook his head, "The Philosopher's stone can lift 6x curses!"

"So?"

"The regular ministry ratings for curses go up to 5x, which promises 50 years in Askaban minimum, but then there's 6x, only 4 curses fall into this range, The Cruciatus, the Imperius, the HellSpawn and… The curse of the half-life… the same curse that drinking unicorn's blood gives!" Harry said excitedly.

Realisation dawned on Hermione's face, "So if he can get his hands on a philosopher's stone then he could…" She trailed off in horror.

"But why would he be in Hogwarts then?" Harry asked.

"Maybe that's what's on the third floor that Professor Dumbledore doesn't want us to see!" Hermione said excitedly.

Harry frowned, "But why would the Professor specifically tell us not to go there?"

"There must be protections of some sort."

"We need to check."

"Are you crazy, Harry! There could be al sorts of traps."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Obviously we aren't going to go inside, we're going to use the window spell to see inside the room at the end of the corridor."

*** **Later, third floor corridor**

Harry stood outside the door, and channelled the amount of energy that was needed for the 3rd year spell, it had caught his eye, the window lasted as long as you poured energy into it, it was double sided, which made it risky for spying but Harry was relatively sure that there was no human being on the other side of the door. There was a version of the spell that was taught to sixth years that was one-sided but even Harry's big-for-his-age magical core would not be able to manage the 6th year spell until his 2nd or third year.

"Fenetrus." Harry incanted, instantly feeling the drain on his magical core, and found he could only hold it for a few seconds but in this case a few seconds was enough.

On the other side of the door, there was a huge Cerberus and it lunged at the magically created window which vanished just before the Cerberus broke through.

The gargantuan dog thudded against the wall and the big doors.

*** **later**

"Did you see what it was standing on!" Harry said excitedly.

"The trapdoor" Hermione nodded.

"Exactly, the Cerberus was definitely hiding something, its very likely it's the stone!"

Hermione looked somewhat sceptical, "It _could be_ , I suppose…"

Harry looked thoughtful.

"The Cerberus seems like the kind of pet that Hagrid would keep, I'm going to go talk to him…"

*** **Hagrid's hut**

Hagrid had given Harry a standing offer that Harry could visit him, when Harry had first politely refused his first invite.

Harry and Hermione trekked down to Hagrid's hut and rapped on the door. The friendly giant opened the door and smiled down kindly at the two first-years.

Harry smiled back sweetly.

"Hello Hagrid, mind if we come talk to you, we've been doing some research on magical creatures and we heard that you were the best source on all sorts of magical creatures, especially misunderstood ones!" Harry gushed slyly.

Hagrid rubbed his chin, "Course Harry! Yer always welcome here, I used to know yer parents!"

Harry started conversation about random magical animals about questions that he was actually trying to find answers for in his other CoMC research. He found himself enjoying Hagrid's company.

Harry cleverly started talking about Cerberus'.

"Ya know Hagrid, I've always wanted to see a Cerberus. It must be so cool to have 3 sets of eyes! Say Hagrid, do you know where one of those might be?" Harry asked.

Hagrid puffed out his chest proudly.

"I raised one meself, Fluffy his name was!"

"Really? Where is he now?"

"Helping Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel with the protections for something." He said, not realising that he was releasing valuable info as Harry was reasonably smiling throughout the entire thing, not giving Hagrid any idea that he had just revealed potentially dangerous information.

*** **After the chat with Hagrid, library**

Harry and Hermione had raced back to the library, Flamel was the only known maker of the philosopher's stone in the modern day, Dumbledore was storing it in the castle for some reason and Voldemort was there, trying to steal it.

Harry was seriously contemplating putting the Cerberus to sleep using music, which was something Hagrid had told him, and look down the trapdoor but finally decided not to.

*** **Halloween afternoon**

"Wingardium Levioosa!" Ron snorted, "Stupid know-it-all!"

Hermione rushed out from behind Ron and ran to the girl's bathroom with Harry chasing behind her.

Harry glared at Ron and decided to give Hermione her space.

*** **Halloween feast**

Quirrellmort arrived in the Great Hall dramatically, and shouted out loud about a troll before pretending to pass out, his breathing pattern was indication that he was indeed conscious and just pretending to be asleep.

Harry narrowed his eyes and was about to walk up with the rest of the Gryffindors when suddenly he remembered something.

Hermione.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Kinda a cliffhanger… kinda, though you probably know what comes next, either way, please review, fav and follow and all that jazz.**

 **Px5 out.**


	6. Halloween and Flying lessons

**An: I completely forgot to include a disclaimer in the first chapter, so here's the customary 'I don't own Harry Potter duh" message.**

 ***** Great Hall**

Hermione.

Without sparing Quirrellmort another glance, Harry sprinted to the bathroom that he'd seen Hermione in.

He ran in, "Hermione, there's a troll in the castle, you need to get out of here!"

Hermione opened the door, sniffling with red eyes, "Harry, what are you doing in the girls' bathroom?"

"There's a troll loose in the castle, we have to go."

At that very moment, the acrid smell of troll filled their noses.

Harry cursed some not so polite words and rolled out of the troll's club's way.

He quickly formulated a plan.

Harry transfigured a wrecked toilet into a really bad humanoid-ish mess and depulso-d the mess into the opposite wall, the dumb creature looked the other way and started lumbering towards the humanoid toilet transfiguration.

Panting with the exertion from his previous 3rd year spells, with sweat rolling down his forehead, Harry levitated the troll's club and dropped it on the stupid creature's head.

The troll dropped dead, with a cracked skull.

Harry fell onto one knee from magical exertion, that transfiguration, while not extremely impressive had severely drained his core.

At that point, Snape, Dumbledore and McGonagall sprang into the room, Snape's wand already glowing with several dark curses, Dumbledore's already shooting a deep cutting curse.

The cutting curse flew over the fallen troll, and Snape managed to stop his spell in time to stop it from firing.

McGonagall was the first to notice the two kids, "Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger! What are you doing looking for the troll!"

Snape looked severely annoyed, mistaking Harry for James, "Obviously they were looking for the troll for the fame it would get them! 50 points from Gryffindor, each and a week of detention, with me."

McGonagall looked startled at the amount of punishment but stayed silent as she felt it was deserved, "Still, first years beating a mountain troll, you were really lucky. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Hermione opened her mouth to lie but Harry spoke first.

"Hermione was using the facilities when Professor Quirrell told us about the troll, I remembered she was in the toilet, when we passed this corridor, there were no professors to tell and I thought it would just be a minute and we could run and catch up, also the troll was said to be in the dungeons so why would we be in any danger, a mountain troll isn't supposed to be able to move from the dungeons to the 5th floor in a minute, so if we were looking for the troll, we wouldn't be here." Harry finished his explanation.

McGonagall listened and understood, "Very well, take 80 points to Gryffindor, so you've had only 10 taken each for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, 15 points to Gryffindor for good luck in handling the troll situation. You will not serve the detentions with Professor Snape either, as they were given in… bad judgement, she looked sternly at Snape.

Harry looked a little contrite and scared, like he was supposed to, and nodded and thanked their Professor.

*** **Later**

Hermione was looking at Harry with awe, she had resigned herself to the 100 points and detentions but instead they had got off with only losing 5 points and no detention.

"You had the Professors wrapped around your finger, Harry! How did you manage that, you basically just bent the truth a little and got us out of all punishment." Hermione said excitedly.

Harry smiled, "You don't have to lie to get out of trouble, you just have to say the right things."

From under James Potter's invisibility cloak, Dumbledore smiled in amusement, slightly impressed at Harry's fast-talking skills.

*** **Later**

Harry had gained a level of infamy that he hadn't wanted from the troll incident. He was really annoyed by the claps on the back from the Gryffindors, as he walked to his first flying class.

Hermione was really nervous at the idea of flying because it couldn't be learned from books, Harry's influence had given her some confidence outside of her books, but flying was way out of her comfort zone.

"I'm not sure I can do this, I mean, I've read all about it but reading isn't everything so I have no idea what will happen, I calculated how much push you need to have but I'm not sure I can pull it off!" Hermione started to babble.

"Calm down Hermione, you can do this." Harry said, speaking more calmly than he felt, he too was kinda scared about how he would do at flying, he knew his father was the Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team in his day, but he wasn't sure that he wanted to put all his trust in his Potter genes.

"Stand over your brooms, stick out your hands and say 'UP!"." Barked Madam Hooch, the flying teacher, whose only job seemed to be taking first year flying lessons, all 2 of them, and officiating all the Quidditch matches, all 6 of them, all in all, she was a really busy teacher, Harry thought sarcastically.

He put out his hand, he had read that confidence was key, "Up." He said calmly, trying to make himself believe that the broom was definitely going to come up to his hand.

It did, Harry was one of the few people who managed to make their broom rise, Hermione's barely budged next to him.

"Believe it will come up, that's was does it." Harry whispered.

Hermione gritted her teeth and tried to believe, before she even started to say 'up', the broom shot into her hand, Harry grinned.

After another minute of that, in which about a fourth of the class had gotten their brooms, Hooch sighed, and just let them pick up the brooms.

"Mount your brooms and let me judge your stance."

She did, correcting several muggle-borns, and Draco Malfoy.

"You may now gently kick off and hover a few feet off the ground." Hooch gently coached.

Neville Longbottom, a chubby pureblood started hyperventilating, his broom starting to rise faster and faster before flipping and dropping Neville off his broom, Hooch seemed shocked and stuck to the place.

Harry thought fast and cast his best cushioning charm under Neville, who still landed with a painful "OOMPH!"

Hooch went up to Neville, noticed his broken arm and started to take him up to the Hospital wing.

"And not a single broom off the ground, or you'll be out of this school before you can say 'Quidditch'." She warned.

After Hooch had gone, Malfoy picked up a glass ball that Neville had dropped.

"Oh look, Longbottom's remembrall." Malfoy sneered, "Let me hide this somewhere for him to find." Draco made to mount his broom.

"Wow, I didn't know you and Neville were such pals, what with playing hide and seek with personal property." Harry commented casually.

"I'm not friends with that blood traitor!" Drack screeched, as a large part of the class, including some Slytherins started to snicker.

"Well then, I'm sure you'll be happy to return his possession as formal pureblood culture requires." Harry stated, effectively cutting off Draco's legs, as he couldn't publicly break pureblood tradition.

Finally, he grunted and threw the ball at Harry, who caught it, before it fell, and pocketed it.

"Please return Heir Longbottom's possession on my behalf, Heir Potter." Malfoy said gruffly.

Harry nodded, "It will be done, Heir Malfoy."

After 15 minutes of waiting, in which Hermione started quizzing him on pureblood traditions, Hooch returned with a perfectly sorted Neville.

"Now, we may continue our flying class." Hooch said sternly.

They hovered, then started moving and doing laps of the court, Harry was a natural at flying and within minutes, he was doing loop-de-loops and out-flying everyone by much, Hooch was extremely excited by his natural skills.

After that, she made them work with Quaffles, and try and shoot them at hoops, which Harry did reasonably well, and definitely better than most of his peers, though he couldn't get enough power behind most of his shots to out-shoot a halfway decent chaser, after that she had them work with beater's bats, which Harry could barely hold, and he could see her disappointment, as she surveyed his lack of skill as a beater. Then she had them try to block shots, which he excelled at, moving fast and flipping to block shots, he out-flied all his peers in keeping.

Finally, she had them chase tennis balls that she threw through the air, and finally, his true potential was shown, as he far outflew his peers, zigzagging and catching all 10 of his balls that he had thrown his way, the second best was Draco Malfoy's 4.

Hooch went off for a moment and came back with McGonagall, who was the head of Gryffindor.

"Potter, come with me." McGonagall said.

*** **Outside Quirrell's classroom**

"Professor, may I borrow Wood for a second?" McGonagall asked.

'Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, in his OWL year.' Harry thought curiously.

"I have found you your new seeker!" McGonagall said proudly.

Wood's eyes widened and a manic smile spread across his face.

"Practise, today, 8:00"

*** **End of chapter.**


	7. Hagrid's Dragon

*** **Present**

"Practise, today, 8:00." Wood said immediately, "Come, and I'll personally see your skill and explain some things about our strategy and Quidditch."

Harry nodded, not sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Don't tell the rest of your classmates. You can be a surprise." McGonagall said.

Harry nodded.

*** **Later, Quidditch Pitch**

"What did Professor McGonagall want with you?" Hermione asked, lots of people listening in.

"Oh, just to tell me that Professor Snape wanted to give me a detention and to explain myself." Harry said casually, deflecting the conversation to the evils of Severus Snape.

Automatically, the class burst into complaint about the unfairness of the oily potions master.

*** **Later, library**

"You're part of the Quidditch team!" Hermione hissed excitedly, "There hasn't been a first-year on the Quidditch team for-"

"-A hundred years, or so McGonagall says." Harry finished, not paying attention to the conversation as he noticed an unnatural amount of smoke emitting from the chimneys of the gamekeeper's cabin.

"Looks like something is burning in the Gamekeeper's cabin." Harry noted and began to walk in the direction of.

Hermione looked and her eyes widened, "Oh! Do you think something is burning down!?"

"Perhaps, still can't hurt to check."

"We could get burnt." Hermione countered dryly.

Harry looked amused, "Not if we're careful" and twirled his wand between his fingers, a spray of water coming out of his wand to land on Hermione's shoes, making the bookish girl jump with an "eep" of surprise.

Harry laughed.

Hermione frowned, "But the water conjuration spell is third year!"

Harry smiled, "I learn what I need to."

They hurried towards Hagrid's cabin.

Harry knocked on the door smartly.

"I don't think Hagrid is in. If he were here, he would've put out the fire himself." Hermione said, just as the burly Gamekeeper opened the door.

"Harry! Hermione! Nice to see you guys." Hagrid greeted.

"Hello Hagrid, we saw smoke and came over to see whether there was anything wrong." Harry said.

Hagrid looked away guiltily.

Harry narrowed his eyes, he hadn't missed Hagrid's expression, it would have been practically impossible, "Hagrid, what are you hiding?"

"Errrr, nothing?" Hagrid replied, almost like a question.

Harry peered around the house and his eyes came to lie on a small reptilian green figure near Hagrid's fireplace… a small green reptilian figure that was _breathing fire_ near Hagrid's fireplace.

"Hagrid…" Harry said slowly, "You have a _dragon_ in your house, do you know how many laws you're breaking?"

Hagrid seemed to deflate a bit, "I've always wanted ter raise a dragon… and when the bloke offered… I couldn't resist."

Harry was instantly on alert, "Hagrid… which bloke offered you a dragon egg, a restricted and dangerous item that is destroyed on sight by the ministry?" Harry said, exasperatedly.

"Errrr… won it from a fellow in the Hog's head, he was wearin' a cloak and all, didn't look too suspicious, least not for the Hog's Head types…" Hagrid said with uncertainty, only now feeling the suspicion he should have when he was offered the highly illegal item.

Harry shook his head, "Hagrid, you cannot keep a dragon in your house, your wooden house, it'll be burnt down, you need to open up to Professor Dumbledore, he's helped you out in the past and he isn't the sort of man who seems to care about the legality of these kinds of things." Harry said, there were many things that Harry wouldn't trust Dumbledore with, but Hagrid's welfare wasn't one of them, Dumbledore had done vouched for Hagrid to get him his job, even when Hagrid had been in possession of the giant spider. Also, knowing Dumbledore, he probably already knew about Hagrid's dragon anyway.

Harry spent the rest of the time convincing Hagrid that telling Dumbledore was the right thing to do, it wasn't hard because Hagrid already viewed Dumbledore in a very positive light.

*** **Outside the headmaster's gargoyle, a little while later**

"We need to see the headmaster." Harry said.

"Password." The gargoyle replied in a monotone.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Why does the headmaster need a password, he would be so much more accessible to students, if they were allowed to request to talk with the Headmaster."

"An excellent idea, Mr. Potter, one I may actually consider." Said the Headmaster's smiling voice from behind them.

Harry and Hermione spun around to face Dumbledore who was standing with a toast in his hand.

"Just fetching a snack from the kitchens." Dumbledore said in his grandfatherly way before waving his hand and having the gargoyle move aside so they could ascend.

"I must ask why you need to see me." The Headmaster of Hogwarts asked idly on the way up, deciding not to glean Harry's mind until necessary.

Harry waited a second while Dumbledore closed the door before replying, "Hagrid has come into possession of a dragon, and we need to help him get rid of it, and you seem to be the ideal person to help."

The Wizened Professor nodded, he knew that Hagrid had a dragon, but he was waiting to see what Hagrid would do, but of course, if his help was asked, he would provide it.

"I know a dragon tamer, Charlie Weasley, who can pick up the dragon on short notice, tell Hagrid not to worry." Said Dumbledore, "But since you two have been involved in an illegal operation in every sense of the word, I shall have to punish you…"

Harry felt annoyed on the inside, it had been a gamble to come to Dumbledore.

"… 5 points from Gryffindor and a detention with Hagrid." Dumbledore said happily.

Harry nodded, exasperated at the Headmaster's weird sense of humour.

*** **That weekend.**

Charlie and his friends showed up to retrieve Norbert from Hagrid.

"Hey, how're ya doing, Charlie!" Hagrid rumbled.

"Good and yourself, I've come to pick up a dragon that Dumbledore said you had found."

"Yeah, got 'im right here." Hagrid said, gesturing to his fireplace where the Welsh Green was relaxing on the hot coals, snoring peacefully.

Charlie smiled at the dragon, like the dragon lover he was, "Come with me baby, you'll have an AMAZING home in Romania!"

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Sorry that this chapter is extremely late, but I fell really sick last Saturday and only got on to this chapter yesterday.**

 **Px** **Five** **out.**


	8. Detention with Hagrid

**An: Expect sporadic updates to this story cuz I'm busy and lazy, a horrible combo at the best of times. :-( Also, I'm working to get 1st year over and done with right now so this chapter may or may not seem a bit rushed cuz I've got a couple things to get through.**

 **Updated An 4/6/18: I'm sticking to only basic edits but this story is kinda sorta really not good at the beginning, so, uh, if you're reading this for the first time, sorry, it gets better, I swear!**

 ***** Detention with Hagrid**

Filch led Harry and Hermione down to Hagrid's hut for their detention, muttering vilely all the while.

"Shame the Headmaster doesn't allow corporal punishment or you'd be hanging by your feet in the dungeons!" the unhealthily sadistic squib muttered vehemently.

Harry stayed silent but Hermione looked like she wanted to say something before she decided to stay silent.

Hagrid, who was standing outside his hut with Fang on a leash waved cheerily at the two students, "Hiya Harry! Hermione! We're gonna be in the forest t'night."

"Isn't the forest out of bounds for students?" Hermione half-stated, half-asked.

"Yeh'll be with an adult." Hagrid said, puffing out his chest proudly.

Harry nodded.

Hagrid and the two kids chattered all the way to the edge of the forest, Harry continuing to sate his curiosity about all sorts of magical creatures and species.

"Unicorns have been killed in the forest, we're gonna see whether we can find what's doing it." Hagrid said, his smile fading into a grave expression.

"Did you say unicorns, Hagrid?" Harry asked,frowning, this seemed like his and Hermione's theory might be confirmed if unicorns were being killed, potentially for their blood.

Still, it wouldn't do to get ahead of himself, so he didn't say anything to Hermione who hadn't reached the same conclusion quite yet.

They went into the forest, Harry noted how Hagrid professionally went about locating the unicorn tracks and had Fang sniff a sample of unicorn blood that Hagrid had on his handkerchief.

Hagrid expertly triangulated the carcass of the dead unicorn.

Hagrid shushed the two kids with him, "Be careful, we're tryin' to see what's attacking the unicorns."

They slowly approached the carcass of the unicorn, squinting to try and see in the darkness under the cool shade of the tall foreboding trees.

Hagrid tightened his grip on his umbrella, Harry idly wondered whether the umbrella could turn into a sword of some sort.

Suddenly a figure sprang out of the shadows, cloaked in black, striking an imposing figure looking almost like a dementor.

Hagrid roughly pushed Harry and Hermione behind him, charging into the small but dark clearing, his umbrella pointed like a muggle gun.

The man in the cloak sprang up, wand in hand and a green spell flying at Hagrid.

Hagrid's eyes bugged out comically and he dove to the left, falling in a barrel roll, recovering and charging at the figure, too fast for the cloaked man to cast another spell, tackling him to the ground and trying to wrench his wand away.

The figure managed to dislodge Hagrid with great difficulty, sending a depulso point-blank into Hagrid's ribcage and approaching the fallen figure of Hagrid before suddenly stilling.

Harry was puzzled for a moment then heard the reason for the figure's consternation, there was the sound of hooves pounding against the leaves and other rubbish that could be found on the forest floor.

A half-man half-horse sprang into the clearing, with a drawn bow in his hand, a centaur, Harry registered.

The figure melted into the shadows quicker than Harry could blink, leaving him wondering whether there was any magic involved.

"Harry Potter…" the centaur rumbled, "You should not be here."

"W-What was that...?" Harry said, hating how weak and crackly his voice sounded.

"Something that doesn't belong within these walls." The centaur said gravely before turning his piercing eyes to Harry, "One who drinks a unicorn's blood is cursed to a half-life, only one who believes there was something to restore a full life would drink it…"

The centaur trailed off.

"The Philosopher's stone." Harry said, faintly.

His theories were finally confirmed!

Quirrellmort was going after the Philosopher's stone!

He glanced at Hermione who seemed to be shocked, then at Hagrid who was injured.

"We have to get Hagrid back to the hospital wing!" Harry said urgently.

"I can carry your female companion, and you can cast one of those fancy light-weight charms that you wizards have on the half-giant."

Hermione thanked the centaur profusely before gingerly getting onto his back, knowing from Harry's quizzing of Hagrid that it was a great honor to ride on one's back.

Harry cast the feather-light charm on Hagrid, feeling a bit light-headed from the energy that he expended in the 4th year charm.

Finally they reached the edge of the forest, by which point Harry's charm had worn off to about half its effectivity and Harry was sweating profusely and barely standing.

The centaur let Hermione off his back, "I shall leave you younglings here, remember, it is dangerous in the forest."

He turned to leave.

"What's your name?" Hermione asked just as he left.

"Firenze." He said before galloping off, not even looking back once.

Harry and Hermione lugged Hagrid all the way to the infirmary, Hermione recast the feather-light charm and almost passed out, still only providing about one fourth of the lightness that Harry's had provided.

*** **Hospital Wing**

"Oh my goodness! What happened to Hagrid." Madam Pomfrey exclaimed in distress before turning to the two students suspiciously.

"Would you two know anything about what happened." She said, acting accusatory.

Headmaster Dumbledore strolled up behind the students, casting quick wandless charms to cover the bags underneath his eyes and putting on his best grand-fatherly omniscient smile.

"For detention, we were investigating what had been killing the unicorns in the forest. The 'what' turned out to be a person who attacked Hagrid and escaped." Harry spoke concisely.

Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly, "The forest for detention! Crazy people in this school." She said distractedly, while waving her wand in intricate patterns over Hagrid's body.

With a great strained heave, Hagrid came back to consciousness, his eyes huge.

"Professor Dumbledore…" he wheezed out, "'Twas Professor Quirrell!"

*** **End of Chapter, hopefully the next one is coming tomorrow, fingers crossed.**

 **G'night folks**

 **Px5 out.**


	9. Dumbledore v Quirrellmort: Part 1

**An: I am back for chapter 9 and hopefully finishing off first year in the next chapter or 2. Good luck me.**

 ***** Present**

"For detention, we were investigating what had been killing the unicorns in the forest. The 'what' turned out to be a person who attacked Hagrid and escaped." Harry spoke concisely.

Madam Pomfrey clucked disapprovingly, "The forest for detention! Crazy people in this school." She said distractedly, while waving her wand in intricate patterns over Hagrid's body.

With a great strained heave, Hagrid came back to consciousness, his eyes huge.

"Professor Dumbledore…" he wheezed out, "'Twas was Professor Quirrell!"

"The Professor who can't even finish a sentence without stuttering!?" Pomfrey said disbelievingly.

Dumbledore's expression turned grave, "It is as I feared, Quirrell is on orders from Voldemort."

"Quirrell _is_ being possessed by Voldemort." Harry mentally corrected.

Out loud he said, "Wouldn't it be best to ambush him in his room so that no students are hurt and Quirrell is captured immediately."

Dumbledore considered the idea, slightly startled that it had come from an 11-year-old and focused on keeping the students safe rather than involving himself just to have an 'adventure'.

"Yes, that seems… wise." He then sent Harry and Hermione a sharp look, "Yet I notice, that you two are the only ones in this room who do not seem surprised that Voldemort is back."

Hermione seemed lost for a moment but Harry answered, "With all due respect sir, I always doubted that a 1-year-old me could take down a Dark Lord, this just confirms it."

Dumbledore nodded, "Very smart of you, Harry, something you may notice is that wizards tend to lack common sense because of the common-sense-defying feats that magic can pull off."

Harry nodded his acknowledgement.

Dumbledore cracked his knuckles, "I shall inform the other professors and we shall take out Quirinus as painlessly and quickly as possible. You two make sure to stay out of the teacher's office vicinity."

Dumbledore fixed the two kids with his piercing gaze, "Poppy, please be ready to accept Quirinus into the hospital wing for any injuries, and the other teachers, if anything goes wrong."

*** **Staff Room meeting, all teachers except Quirrell.**

"It was come to my knowledge that Quirinus is working for Lord Voldemort."

He waited for the customary gasps and shudders.

"But Voldemort is dead, isn't he?" Professor Sprout asked, sounding slightly afraid.

Dumbledore shook his head gravely, "I've had my suspicions for many years and I've had my eye on Quirinus all year, this just cements it, he's resorted to violence once already, we can't risk any students getting hurt, we need to take Quirinus in before he hurts anybody else."

*** **Outside Quirrell's office**

Dumbledore quietly checked the door handle, it was locked.

Without further ado, Dumbledore blasted open the door, gaining the element of surprise and casting his stupefy at the man in the room.

Quirrell had taken off his turban in the relative privacy of his room, so the teachers caught him with his metaphorical fly open.

Dumbledore turned pale, as Voldy took control of Quirrell's body to push it out of the curse's way and weave through those of the other teachers.

"What have you done Tom." Dumbledore whispered.

"You finally found Quirrell out, eh Dumbledore, no matter, I'll fight past you and get the stone now."

With a final sibilant hiss, Quirrellmort began to rain spells on the group of teachers who had come to apprehend him.

Despite their proficiency at dueling, most of the teachers were just that, teachers, and fell to Voldy's initial onslaught of spells.

After the first couple, several teachers were down with bone-breakers and blood-boilers, surprisingly Voldy had thrown no unforgivables, which Dumbledore later realized was because of the alarm attached to Hogwarts' wards that would alert the ministry.

Flitwick, Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore were the only teachers left standing.

"It's four on one, Tom, you might have beat me alone, but you'll never get past all of us in your weakened state."

There was a hint of fear in Voldy's eyes but he laughed, "I don't need my full power to dispatch your entourage."

The onslaught of spells that met him thought otherwise.

McGonagall was the first to fall, as Dumbledore and Voldy upped the ante in terms of spells, now sending conjured rocks at each other and animating the debris.

McGonagall was hit by some rubble that had been turned into a makeshift gargoyle by Voldy, she was knocked out cold by a gash to her forehead which flung her into the already broken wall on the other side of Quirrell's office, probably breaking a few bones too.

Voldemort summoned darkness to his aid, sending spikes of necromancy at Dumbledore.

A brilliant phoenix made out of flames shot out of Dumbledore' wand, eating up the measly spikes of darkness and hurtling into Voldemort, sending him flying into the wall and scorching his entire office.

Dumbledore and his merry crew converged on where Quirrellmort had collapsed.

As the smoke cleared, they saw Quirrellmort standing, mostly unburnt and only a little scorched but breathing heavily with a gash across his chest courtesy of Snape.

"Is that the best you can do, Tom, party tricks with necromancy, you're weak in this state, just surrender yourself." Dumbledore said, sounding every bit the war general, the generous headmaster magically vanishing in that moment.

"You will never beat me Dumbledore!" Quirrellmort screeched, sending a huge jet of water that took the form of a snake at Dumbledore, it was especially effective in the closed quarters as there was no place to move for Dumbledore.

Dumbledore waved his wand and enveloped himself and his two companions in a bubble that was hit hard by the water and sent rocketing into the other side of the corridor, through McGonagall's office and would probably have gone through the wall of McGonagall's office if Dumbledore hadn't forcefully stopped their bubble, jerking them into the wall with inertia as Dumbledore popped the bubble and defended against the string of curses from Voldy while Flitwick and Snape gathered their wits.

Voldemort had gotten more creative with his darkness attacks, sending arrows of darkness and spears of darkness hurtling at Dumbledore who used elemental magic to counter and respond with his own attacks.

Dumbledore conjured a huge whip of fire and sent it at Voldemort, not even waiting to see what happened before casting depulso on the debris that Voldemort's latest attack had created, sending it flying back at Voldy.

Voldemort quickly turned the debris into sand, flinging it at Dumbledore' face and replied to the fire whip with a shield of ice.

Unfortunately for Voldemort, the fire whip burned right through the weak ice shield, lashing Voldemort across the chest and sending him flying through the window and flung him all the way into the great lake.

Dumbledore cursed, as Voldemort rose out of the water on a tidal waved which crashed onto shore and headed at top speeds towards the building of Hogwarts, sending students screaming in every direction.

Dumbledore did the only sensible thing he could.

He jumped out of the window.

 ***** End of Chapter.**

 **An: And that's the first major duel. You may have noticed that** **Dumbledore** **is winning, that's cuz Voldemort is possessing Quirrell, Quirrellmort can't harness Voldy's full power, so he's not strong enough to beat** **Dumbledore** **.**


	10. Dumbledore v Quirrellmort: Part 2

**An: I have noticed from a review that the line 'Dumbledore jumped out the window' may have seemed like he lost. What I meant was that after blasting Voldemort through the window, he jumped out to confront Voldemort, who was already on the ground outside the window. I hope that cleared it all up.**

 ***** Present**

Dumbledore cursed, as Voldemort rose out of the water on a tidal wave which crashed onto shore and headed at top speeds towards the building of Hogwarts, sending students screaming in every direction.

Dumbledore did the only sensible thing he could.

He jumped out of the window.

Flicking his wand to slow his descent, Dumbledore dropped onto the ground, rolled, with agility not seen from anyone else his age and shouted in his most authoritative voice.

"All students, get inside the building!"

The effect was instantaneous, all the panicking students took comfort in the power being exerted by their headmaster, and they rushed inside Hogwarts.

The heavy door of Hogwarts swung shut after the last of the students, intricate locks on the door locked, sealing the castle shut.

Students gathered at the windows to see the fight between the Headmaster and… Voldemort!?

Students fainted, as they realized who exactly was being dueled by Dumbledore.

Flitwick and Snape tried to keep order, sending kids who had been hurt by the tidal wave to Madam Pomfrey, where all of the teachers were.

 ***** With Harry**

The detention had taken place before dinner, the attack on Quirrell directly after dinner, most students rushed straight from dinner to one of the overlooking classrooms, nobody dared to go to the first floor rooms, Harry himself found a spot with Hermione at the very corner of one of the second floor classrooms with a good view.

4 out of the 13 people in the room had fainted and most of the rest looked about ready to join the 4.

Harry and Hermione were the only remotely calm people.

"It can't be… not him!" one of the seventh years cried out.

"You know who…" another students whispered.

Out on the front lawn/battlefield, the fight between the two greatest wizards of their respective times fought it out.

Not even the most experienced seventh years had ever seen what Dumbledore was truly capable of, he always portrayed himself as the slightly eccentric grandfather figure.

*** **Out on the battlefield**

More spikes of darkness were hurled at Dumbledore as Voldemort followed up with a barrage of spells and fiendfyre.

Dumbledore blocked with a wall of ice, far more stable and cold than Voldemort's had been, though it still broke on impact with the fiendfyre.

Dumbledore sent his phoenix patronus to take the fiendfyre head on.

Harry made a note to himself to see exactly what curses the patronus dealt with.

The brilliant white glowing phoenix cut right through the fiendfyre before dissipating into mist, blinding Voldemort for a precious second in which Dumbledore hurled rocks, transfigured into flaming arrows at Voldemort.

Seeing the arrows too late to cast anything, Voldemort instead dodged the arrows, weaving through the path but still getting hit with a few, he summoned forward the water from the lake, drenching himself and putting out the fire caused by the arrows.

Voldemort vanished the arrows and sealed the wounds rudimentarily in a split second, the second that it took Dumbledore to depulso Voldemort away, breaking a few bones.

"Give up Tom."

"Never!" Quirrellmort rasped, brandishing his wand, sending another volley of dark curses, which Dumbledore shielded against, sending his own volley of mostly light spells back at Voldemort, matching his speed beat for beat.

The crowd was in awe, they watched the volleys of spells from Voldemort that had brought the most experienced of aurors to their knees and shamed the great Mad Eye Moody be matched by Dumbledore, the doddery old school teacher.

With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore redirected Voldemort's latest curse back at himself, something that could only be done by a caster stronger than the strength in the spell, something usually only done in duels to piss off weaker opponents and display your dominance.

Quirrellmort screamed in rage, sending irregular bursts of elemental magic, throwing spears of ice and fire at Dumbledore who calmly countered and blocked Voldemort.

Quirrellmort heaved with the pressure of the magic flowing through the weak body of Quirrell.

,With sweat dripping from every place of his body, he summoned a large block of darkness giving it the likeness of a hammer and smashed it into where Dumbledore was standing before collapsing to his knees, Quirrell's magic had been completely spent.

Dumbledore emerged from the rubble protected by a pink dome that was cracked everywhere but still holding.

He let the shield go, only slightly winded after the entire battle.

Dumbledore waved his wand at Quirrellmort's fallen body.

Heavy cords made of metal wrapped themselves around Quirrell restraining him completely.

Quirrellmort screamed out in rage as Dumbledore took his wand and pocketed it.

"You won't be needing this back Tom."

With that, Dumbledore called Fawkes, his phoenix and they flashed to his office with Quirrellmort in tow.

 ******* **Dumbledore's** **office**

Quirrellmort was bound in the chair in front of him, with three drops of veritaserum down his throat.

"What is your name." Dumbledore asked.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle." Voldemort replied, hating every second.

"How did you ensure your immortality."

"…Using dark rituals…" the answer was forced from his mouth.

Dumbledore cut to the chase, "Have you or have you not made horcruxes."

"…"

"…"

Voldemort resisted, refusing his breath, turning blue in the face before the potion forced him into revealing to Dumbledore the answer.

"… y…e…s…"

*** **End of Chapter.**

 **An: This chapter was kinda sorta really short but I thought that was a good place to end off the chapter, cuz I only wanted this one to include the fight and the interrogation. I did extend the fight a bit just to fill out my 1000 words minimum, but I still didn't quite get there, hence this long An.**

 **PxFive** **out.**


	11. The End of First Year

**An: I hope you enjoy. :-)**

 ******* **Dumbledore's** **office, present**

Dumbledore cut to the chase, "Have you or have you not made horcruxes."

"…"

"…"

Voldemort resisted, refusing his breath, turning blue in the face before the potion forced him into revealing to Dumbledore the answer.

"… y…e…s…"

Dumbledore's expression grew more serious.

"How many." He asked, simply.

"6 horcruxes." Voldemort said with great difficulty as he tried to fight the effects of the veritaserum.

"What are they, _where are they?"_ Dumbledore asked, his voice growing more urgent and distraught.

Voldemort managed a shaky smile.

"That information is hidden behind secrecy spells in parseltongue that even veritaserum cannot extract from me."

Dumbledore nodded then pointed his wand at Voldemort, "Exorcizamus."

Voldemort's soul was dragged out of the body slowly.

The last thing this part of Voldemort's soul knew was pain as Dumbledore banished it to the afterworld using an intricate, grey-at-best ritual to finally put an end to Voldemort… or at least the first part of Voldemort's soul.

*** **Next day, great hall**

"Last night, I fought and beat Voldemort. He was in a much weakened form that gave me the inherent advantage so that minimal damage was done. Rest assured, he is not dead. He has used dark rituals that I need to counteract before he can truly be entirely sent to the afterlife. You have seen him with your own eyes, do not stick your head in the sand, and most of all, be brave, in the possibility of dark times in a few years' time, you may or may not still be in Hogwarts, but I hope you will remember my words."

Dumbledore bowed his head and stepped off his speech pedestal, going back to his throne like chair to polite but scared applause.

Hermione leaned over to Harry, "What do you think Voldemort did? Dumbledore seemed positively disgusted when he was talking about that."

"Magic is not supposed to transcend death; Voldemort probably did heinous things to gain his immortality. It did sound like Dumbledore knew what he had to do to stop Voldemort once and for all."

Hermione nodded her agreement, "He looked hopeful of his chances, so maybe Voldemort won't come back again."

Harry nodded, "We can hope. But until then, we have exams to prepare for."

*** **Exam time**

Both Harry and Hermione aced most of their exams.

Hermione did marginally better in the theory portions while Harry excelled in the practical but still did mostly Os in the theory too.

In Charms, they had to merely make a pineapple tap-dance across a table, which Harry did with a flick of his wand and a whispered incantation, giving the pineapple comically large legs AND arms, having it do a complicated ballet move across the desk, making Flitwick squeak in excitement.

Hermione managed the standard spell perfectly, doing the assigned dance move perfectly with her Pineapple's average-sized, regular legs.

In transfiguration, they were turning a dormouse into a snuffbox.

Harry made a golden box with the Hogwarts crest engraved on it and a 3-digit number lock on the clasp. McGonagall lauded his transfiguration and let him keep the box, saying that she didn't need to judge it further to give him an O.

Hermione too managed to create the snuffbox, it was matt-black and plain with a simple silver clasp.

In DaDA, the exam was taken by Professor Dumbledore, and almost everybody did badly, because of Quirrell's horrible, thankfully Dumbledore came to the classes rescue and made the lowest grade he assigned an acceptable.

For the exam, they had to demonstrate the regular dueling, and the regular fighting stances,(Dumbledore made sure to emphasize the difference) and then demonstrate a stinging hex, a tripping jinx and a petrificus totalus spell.

Harry had perfected the stance, and managed the spells through self-learning of basic defense techniques which he seemed to pick up extremely quickly and got a comfortable O and praise from Dumbledore.

Hermione messed up on the two stances, never having practiced those but managed the spells, having read up on the theory behind them with Harry.

From what Harry heard, only a few of the Slytherins and one Hufflepuff managed to get decent grades in DaDA apart from them.

In Herbology, neither Harry nor Hermione managed to do the practical perfectly but they did manage to follow the instructions and repot the plant without breaking any of it, which Sprout assured them was at least an EE at the start of class.

In the Herbology theory, Hermione did perfectly but Harry again did okay, perhaps a high A or a low EE, because he had neglected his Herbology studies quite a bit.

In the potions practical, they had to brew a forgetfulness potion which Harry and Hermione managed perfectly, Hermione's was a shade of blue lighter, and would provide a shorter effect than Harry's which was a sky blue colour.

Snape grudgingly marked them as Os in his book.

In the potions theory, both of them knew everything and got a perfect score, like in transfiguration and charms.

*** **Later, Hogwarts**

They got their marks from the exams back the next day, Harry had Os, in DaDA, Charms, transfiguration and Potions and a lone EE in Herbology.

Hermione got Os in DaDA, Charms and transfiguration and an EE in Herbology and Potions.

Both were very happy with their grades, though Hermione was a bit distraught that she got an EE in Potions and proceeded to ramble about what she did wrong in her practical that could possibly have pushed her grades down, and Harry had to stop her from speaking the entire day away.

*** **Next Day**

It was the last day at Hogwarts.

"The year has gone by so fast…" Harry mused to Hermione who nodded vigorously.

"Yes, I can't wait to come back!"

Harry wrinkled his nose at the idea of going back to the Dursleys.

"Yeah, so am I, let's get down to the train." Harry said, and set off at a brisk walk to the train that Hermione had to almost jog to keep up with.

"Wait up, 'Arry!" Hagrid called out, from behind him.

Harry stopped and spun around to see the friendly half-giant standing there, a bit nervously with a black photo album in his hands.

"Err, just a bit of an early birthday present…" Hagrid said, handing the album to Harry.

"… I gathered some photos of yer parents, what I had and some others." Hagrid saif.

Harry felt a rush of gratitude and hugged the half-giant… or tried to anyway, his hands wrapped awkwardly halfway around Hagrid's torso.

Hagrid hugged him back, almost crushing him to death.

"Thank you."

*** **End of Chapter**


	12. Summerrrrrrr! Part 1

*** **Present**

After the excitement and charm of Hogwarts, the Dursleys' home at Privet Drive seemed more drab and boring than ever, not to mention the Dursleys themselves who cracked down on him like never before.

While he previously enjoyed a level of freedom afforded to him by the Dursleys, he was now grounded to his room and fed through a cat-flap, Harry cursed his fate as he was hoping to catch up on his muggle schoolwork during the summer, by perusing the Public Library that was two blocks down from Privet Drive.

Unfortunately, Harry had to spend his time locked up in Dudley's spare bedroom, reading ahead on magic, trying to learn the practical through the theory, shaking his head in amusement at the similarity to Hermione's study techniques, the one that he spent almost the entire year trying to dissuade her from.

He had gotten Hermione's landline number on the train ride back however he hadn't had an opportunity to escape from his room and use the phone.

Presently, he was practicing his ticket to freedom, wandless magic.

Harry had several books on the topic, the theory was basically to forcefully push magic out of your fingers, which was hard to do because a lot of the energy was lost in transit and it was not as efficient as using a wand.

Harry had been practicing pushing magic through his finger to perform the alohomora charm on the padlock that kept him shut in his room.

His ideal time for breakout was between 11:30 and 12:00, when Dudley was at school, Vernon was at work and Petunia was meeting her dietician (cuz she totally needed one) at the other end of the city.

"Alohomora." Harry whispered urgently, pressing his finger against the door, at about where the lock was on the other side, as he heard the front door slam shut and Petunia's car engine rev up.

The door shuddered slightly and Harry heard slight clicking sounds from the lock but upon trying the handle, the door wouldn't budge.

"Alohomora!" Harry said again, pushing the entire weight of his sizeable magical core into the spell, this time the door clicked louder and Harry heard the telltale thud of the padlock falling off the door on the other side.

Harry grinned jubilantly, his first piece of true wandless magic, and younger than any recorded wizard in the past.

Harry was feeling a larger drain on his core than a hundred alohomoras but his magical core was definitely large enough to handle the drain.

The door swung open.

Harry scooped up the padlock as he walked down the stairs.

He dialed the number into the telephone and waited for someone to pick up.

"Emma Granger, Granger dental practice, how may I help you." A voice said at the other end, sounding vaguely like a grown-up Hermione.

"Hi, this is Harry, Harry Potter, could I speak to Hermione?" Harry asked, putting on his most butter-up-ey polite voice.

"Ah, Harry!, Hermione's told us about you, you really must come over some time." The woman's voice thawed a few degrees, as practiced professionalism slipped into carefree joviality in a manner reminiscent of Hermione again, reminding Harry of the friend he hadn't seen for almost a month.

Harry heard Hermione's mum call out for her a few times before getting back on the line, "She's on her way, so when can I speak to your relatives to organize a play date?" Hermione's mother chattered on till the phone was snatched from her hand.

"Mum!" Hermione's exasperated voice carried over the phone.

"Hey Hermione." Harry started somewhat awkwardly, the idea of a telephone was still somewhat novel to him.

"Hello Harry, sorry about that, I don't have many friends so mum was really happy that I made a friend. She's wanted to invite you over for the entire summer. She was quite put out when I didn't have your phone number, why didn't you call earlier, it's been half the summer? Have you done your holiday homework? How was the essay for Potions, I found it hard to research for without the library?" Hermione's seemingly endless excitable chatter came over the phone clearly.

"My relatives don't like me using their phone, yes, yes and easy enough." Harry responded to her questions one by one as he had learned to do.

"Oh." Hermione sounded a bit contrite to have forgotten about his situation with the Dursleys.

"You can always come over here." Hermione said hopefully.

"Hmm, I don't think my relatives would really care so I can probably come over for the rest of the summer. Where do you live?"

"Insert London Address here" Hermione replied, "My parents run their dental business in the plot below our apartment."

"I can get there today and stay for the rest of summer, would your parents mind? Harry asked.

Hermione talked to her mother for a second.

"She says that she has to speak to your relatives, but you're most welcome."

Harry hesitated, "I'll have them call this evening."

"Will they let you come?" Hermione's voice was laced with concern.

"They'll do anything to get rid of me." Harry said, with certainty that did nothing to allay Hermione's worry.

*** **That evening, Granger Household**

Emma picked up the phone, expecting Harry's relatives.

From what she'd heard of the boy, he was nice and polite, as Hermione's first friend ever, he was always welcome at her house, so she'd readily agreed to let Harry come over.

"Emma Granger, Granger Dental practice, how may I help you."

"Listen here, Potter said you're willing to take him off me for the rest of summer." Vernon's gruff voice came across the speaker.

Emma frowned, no safe guardian should sound like that.

"Yes, I and my husband are willing to house Harry for the rest of the summer vacations."

"Okay then, you sure you can't keep him with you for all summers?" Vernon asked, the hope in his voice disgusting the loving mother.

"I'm sure we can arrange for Harry to come over for part of the holidays each year."

The phone was abruptly cut from the other end and Emma frowned in disapproval, she would need to have a chat with her daughter's new best friend.

 ***** I am back!**


	13. Summerrrrrrr! Part 2

**An: In the previous chapter, I mentioned that Dudley was at school during the summer vacations during which he shouldn't technically have school… I have no excuse, just go with it, it isn't a very important detail so I won't bother changing it, but if it makes you feel better, imagine that he was at his friend's house or something. Second and Last chapter of the summer.**

 ***** Hermione's house**

The bell rang at about 7 PM at the Granger's house, just before dinnertime.

Hermione ran down the stairs, they were expecting Harry to show up today.

As she opened the door, she could have sworn that she saw a purple triple-decker bus pull out from behind Harry faster than any muggle bus could ever hope to.

Harry himself looked sort of sick and slightly ruffled, he was holding a cheap cup of hot chocolate in his left hand and his wand clutched in his right.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed hugging the sickly boy tightly.

"Hermione." Harry said, before twisting out of her grip and throwing up all over the sidewalk, getting a few weird looks from the people passing by.

"I really hate Wizarding travel." Harry said, weakly, waving his hand over the mess three time, having it slowly vanishing into nothingness.

Hermione looked at him awestruck, "Wandless magic! You're the youngest in…"

"Ever… in recorded history." Harry said, grinning in pride, but his face darkened, "But there's no record of Voldemort's school days, so I doubt that figure is entirely accurate."

"Come in." Hermione said, ushering her friend into her house.

The Grangers were fairly rich, they owned a house bigger than Petunia's in Privet Drive, neatly organized but far homelier than that of the Dursleys.

Harry found himself far more at home in 12 seconds at the Grangers than he ever had with 12 years with the Dursleys.

Hermione's mother looked somewhat similar to Hermione, but with sleek black hair and equally large teeth.

"Come in Harry! It's so nice to meet you, you're all that Hermione talked about all summer. I'm Emma, Hermione's mother, would you like some tea, have you had your dinner? Do you want to have dinner with us?" Hermione's mother said all at once.

A slightly larger man with mousy brown hair, but no other real resemblance to Hermione came up, his smile was the kind that you couldn't help but like.

"Hiya Harry, I'm Dan, sorry my wife can be kinda intimidating, but I'm sure you've had experience." He knowingly nodded at Hermione who rolled her eyes.

"Nice to meet you, I haven't had dinner yet, I would be happy to." Harry said, not mentioning that he hadn't had breakfast or lunch either.

The Grangers had made some pasta, a dish which Dudley used to love but Harry had never tried.

"So Harry, I heard from Hermione that you topped her in a few classes, that's a real first for her, do you enjoy studying too?" Dan asked.

Harry nodded, "Some people say knowledge is power, for magic that's far more literal, you need the knowledge to harness your magical potential. Being magically strong is highly important in the magical world."

"Hermione said you play some magical sport."

"Quidditch, it's played on brooms, it's dangerous but fun." Harry replied.

Dan and Emma continued asking questions through dinner.

*** **Later, guest room**

Harry had been set up in the guest bedroom when he heard a deafening crack.

A house-elf, mistreated by the looks of it cracked into Harry's room.

Harry's wand was instantly pointed at the poor creature, it's tip lit up with the distinctive red of the stunning spell.

"HARRY POTTER MUST NEVER GO BACK TO HOGWARTS!" the elf screeched.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "Why."

"THERE ARE DANGERS AT HOGWARTS! PLOTS ARE HAPPENING! HARRY POTTER SIR MUST NOT GO BACK TO HOGWARTS."

"Who is behind the plot. Is it Voldemort."

The house-elf looked distraught, "Not the dark lord but…" the house elf started banging its head on the table.

"Very well then, I shall stay away from Hogwarts." Harry said calmly, lying through his teeth.

The elf looked ecstatic before cracking away.

"Weird elves." Harry muttered beneath his breath.

*** **Later**

The Grangers left their house on time, and reached the station early, Harry and Hermione packed the previous night and were ready to leave on the day.

Harry decided to go through the barrier first, walking calmly at it and… bumping into solid rock.

A few people looked at him weirdly, Harry grinned ruefully, playing it off as clumsiness.

Hermione attempted to go through, more subtly, just edging up against the wall, also finding it solid.

Harry meanwhile started writing out a letter.

To Professor McGonagall,

The barrier at Kings Cross Station refuses to allow Hermione Granger or myself into the station to catch the train. Would it be possible for alternative arrangements to be made for us. I am staying over at Hermione's house which is located at insert address in muggle London,

Thanking you,

Harry Potter

He sent off the letter with Hedwig, telling her to deliver it quickly.

*** **Hogwarts, about an hour later**

McGonagall sighed.

What had Potter and Granger gotten into now?

*** **Hermione's house**

McGonagall apparated to outside Hermione's house, having been there before.

She rang the doorbell, it was opened by Harry and Hermione, dressed in casual muggle clothes.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger." McGonagall nodded, "I understand there is some problem with getting onto the platform?"

They nodded.

"Hold onto my arm, I shall take you to Kings Cross to examine the platform then portkey you to Hogwarts, god forbid if the platform is open." McGonagall threatened.

She cracked them over to the station.

She waved her wand over the barrier muttering several spells under her breath.

"There is elf magic imbued in this wall that is holding it together to deny people entry." She narrowed her eyes, " tell me honestly, did you order any of your house-elves to do this?"

Harry let his confusion show on his face, "I have house-elves?"

McGonagall's expression softened, "Ah, I forgot that Albus has not informed you about your inheritance and property."

McGonagall ran her wand over the wand again, dispelling the enchantment before handing Harry and Hermione a port-key.

"This will take you to the Gryffindor common room.

 ***** End of Chapter.**


	14. Lockhart

**An: Thank you all for 100 favourites and 200 follows and all of the reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter too.**

 ******* **Dumbledore's** **office**

McGonagall stood in front of the Headmaster's desk, cheeks flushed with anger and bitter retorts coming up in her mouth.

"I'm telling you Albus, that boy isn't right there, he may have turned out okay, but there's no way that those stupid muggles could ever have been great parents for the boy but this is just insane, their behaviour could be classified as downright abuse!" McGonagall ranted.

Dumbledore stared at her gravely from across the desk, "It seems that I need to take a trip to the Dursleys before the next summer."

McGonagall shook her head, "You haven't seen them, Albus, there's no way they'll change their ways."

She hesitated at the twinkle in Albus' eye, "You _will not_ use magic on muggles" she said, narrowing her eyes.

"It's where he's safest, Minerva, I can't trust any other protections to keep Harry safe, especially now that Voldemort has been proven to be alive."

"There's got to be another way, you could keep him at Hogwarts, you do know that he spent half the summer with Ms. Granger anyway, right?"

Dumbledore's face took on an expression of surprise, "He was with Hermione Granger?"

"Indeed."

"In a house with NO WARDS!?" he asked/shrieked.

*** **Lockhart's class**

The class that Harry was looking forward to least just happened to be the one that he had first.

Hermione was virtually in love with Lockhart until Harry shot her down, not only pointing out the inconsistencies in the fraud's books but also the fact that half his magical solutions weren't even exactly the right thing.

After learning that his books were fake, Hermione held the man in even greater disregard than Harry himself, Harry had to hold the indignant girl from tearing Lockhart a new one for "Lying… IN A BOOK!"

"Okay class, I understand that you are supposed to read the textbooks before you come to class, so I shall hold a pop quiz on the most important aspects of Defence against the Dark Arts, at a second year standard of course."

Lockhart smiled his award-winning smile at the students he was supposed to be teaching and handed out a test about his personal likes and dislikes.

"Is there any way to get rid off this goddamn idiot?!" Harry thought as he wrote down random answers for the first test in Hogwarts that he had no doubt he would fail.

"Doesn't there have to be some standardised course material for the exams?" Harry wondered.

*** **Later, Hogwarts Library**

" _Hogwarts has historically held two board exams for their students, the European Standard, N.E. and the O.W.L exam accredited by Hogwarts itself. Students from 1st year to 4th year were previously taught as per the wishes of the teacher, however the charter of 1693 (A.D) instated the Pre-OWL curriculum to be followed by the instructors in charge of the subject."_

Harry was reading the latest copy of Hogwarts, A History and a plan began to form in the back of his mind.

A plan to get rid of one GIlderoy Lockhart.

*** **Lockhart's class again**

"I'm afraid that very few of you scored well on the diagnostic test, I guess I'll have to whip you guys into shape then, Professor Dumbledore did say that most of you were slightly behind."

He opened his Werewolf book, "Ah! Let's get Harry up here to play the Wagga Wagga werewolf.

Harry raised his hand, "Unfortunately sir, calling me up alone may violate the 13th charter of 1208, so may I suggest transfiguring and animating one of the dummies in the corner, as a man of your skill obviously can?" Harry said, sweetly.

Lockhart paled slightly, "Ah, of course not Harry, I forgot about the 13th charter of 1208, so many from that year, you know? I don't think its necessary to transfigure and animate the dummy, it is _quite_ advanced magic. I don't want to spend all my energy."

"Oh, no problem, sir, your… energy is very important." Harry said, sounding somewhat earnest and waving his wand at the dummy, turning it the distinctive grey of werewolf fur and transfiguring a snout and turning the legs into the heavy-set werewolf kind, putting bright red eyes as a finishing touch, leaving a convincing approximation of a werewolf.

Lockhart jumped back with a yelp and pulled out his wand. Once he recovered, he took a deep breath and smiled weakly.

Harry smiled, barely hiding the glee behind his smile, "Would you like me to help by animating it too?" Harry asked.

"NO!" Lockhart cried, he hastened to add, "No dark magic in this class."

"But it isn't dark magic, its just Hogwarts second year magic."

Harry flicked his wand and the Werewolf started lugubriously doing a swaying tap-dance in the direction of Lockhart.

Lockhart gave a look of terror and flung his wand at the animated doll.

Harry gritted his teeth with the heavy expense of magic at animating the huge figure but continued pushing his magic into the spell.

Lockhart ran into his storeroom and locked the door.

Harry let the animation fail, beads of sweat coming down his forehead as the dummy fell to the ground.

Hermione was smirking, "Serves him right, he deserves worse!"

Harry shuddered at the viciousness in Hermione's voice and vowed to never get on his best friend's bad side.

Harry smiled widely, this hadn't been part of his plan, but it would certainly hurt Lockhart's credibility.

Their class left early after it was made clear that there was no chance that Lockhart was coming out of his office.

 ***** Elsewhere**

Somewhere else in the castle, a student, possessed by Tom Marvolo Riddle stumbled into the second floor girls bathroom.

~ _Open…~_ the student hissed in the language of snakes.

And the bathroom sink moved aside to reveal an ominous passage.

The student descended down the chute, almost comically fast.

The Student reached the bottom and spoke once more.

~ _Speak to me, Slytherin of the Greatest Four…~_

*** **End of Chapter**


	15. Plot progression

**An: I thought that I should point out that I previously said that Lockhart used a wrong spell in his book, somebody commented that his books were correct but performed by someone else, which is true, however it is mentioned that Lockhart copied down spells incorrectly and did not get all the facts, I haven't read canon in a while, so maybe it's something I picked up in a fanfic, but that is the way that it is in this story.**

*** **Hogwarts, Present**

The news of Lockhart's cowardly escape spread through the castle like wildfire, girls who were previously besotted with the blonde defence professor were now shooting betrayed expressions at him.

Harry's plan would work flawlessly with the population of Hogwarts already willing to believe that Lockhart was now the bane of all existence.

*** **Hogwarts Library, later**

Harry was in the traditions section of the library, searching where one would find histories on the oldest pureblood families.

Harry opened one of the biggest tomes in the section titled, " _Ye Olde Families"_ and searched under the letter P, surprised at the number of families under the list that had died out.

 _Pewter_

 _Pelven_

 _Provit_

 _Peverell_

 _Prewett_

 _Potter_

…

 _POTTER!_

Harry flicked through the pages excitedly, finally coming to the substantial section on the Potters.

" _The Potters are one of the oldest Pureblood families, tracing their bloodline in England all the way back to the Pre-Merlin eras. In recent times, the family has come under more liberal leadership, starting with 17thcentury rebel Pureblood Thomas Potter who used the significant weight of the family to pass the first of many muggle-rights laws and amendments passed by the Potter family in the most recent centuries. The Potter was, at one point, the richest family in magical Britain but in recent years their fortune has dwindled, losing millions of galleons in the wars against Dark Lord Grindelwald and Dark Lord Voldemort, under the leadership of Charles and later James Potter. However, the family still retains a large amount of their wealth, including their mansion, hailed to be the grandest building in Europe in the 18th Century, the peak of the Potters."_

He had a mansion?

Harry's mind went reeling.

He knew the Potters were a pureblood family, but he expected that he would know if he owned a mansion.

British laws did not allow use of the family vault until one became of age, but the mansion was traditionally handed to the oldest family member as soon as the previous family member died, so Harry would technically have owned the place, and it's house-elves since he was one year old.

He would have to write a letter to Gringotts, Dumbledore as his magical guardian should technically have told him about the mansion when he joined the wizarding world at 11 years of age, but McGonagall mentioned that Dumbledore didn't want him to know all about his family yet.

Harry assumed that this was because Dumbledore didn't want him getting drunk on his power and buying into the pureblood nonsense, and while Harry still believed that Dumbledore has stuck his nose where it didn't belong once again, he grudgingly agreed that Dumbledore's reasons were probably for his good.

*** **Next day, Gringotts**

 _Dear Teller Griphook,_

 _May your enemies blood taste the ground,_

 _It has come to my attention that the Potter family has a mansion and that by standard british law, I am now in possession of it. Since all Potter holdings are managed by Gringotts, I was wondering whether I could get the location and the list of wards on the Potter manor,_

 _May the gold of your enemies fill your vaults,_

 _Your customer, Heir Potter._

Griphook read the letter approvingly, not only was the Potter heir courteous, he was also intelligent.

*** **Next morning, Hogwarts**

Harry opened the letter addressed to him, hoping for an answer.

 _To ,_

 _The Potter manor is protected by a Tutela Fidelius, a variation on the fidelius charm which is anchored to the house itself, the knowledge can only be transferred to those whose names are written in the ward book._

 _The Potter Manor is located at itself._

 _May your enemies' gold fill your vaults,_

 _Senior Teller Griphook._

A wave of old memories of a grand house flooded into Harry's head, memories of a grand renaissance style house returning to his head.

Within a moment, Harry knew what his next plan was.

He had to get to Potter manor.

*** **Lockhart's class**

Lockhart was putting more bravado into his latest class than he had before, trying to make up for his lost reputation, he didn't seem to blame it on Harry, which was perfect for Harry's plan.

"Sir, a lot of students want to learn how to duel… do you think you could handle a duelling club, maybe that will let people know that you truly know your stuff." Harry suggested innocently.

Lockhart seemed to brighten at an idea to regain his reputation.

"Great idea, Harry! I think that a duelling club would be a great idea."

"And sir, maybe after the first class, we could hold a duelling competition, separated by grade level of course, and the winner would challenge you."

Lockhart looked like he couldn't keep up with Harry's train of thought so Harry elaborated.

"Like the first through third years duel and the fourth-fifth years duel and the sixth and seventh years duel, then the three winners can challenge you to see how they stack up against real talent, of course, that would be you, sir." Harry said, making sure that there was no way for Lockhart to back out of the competition without seeming weak.

"Of-Course." Lockhart stuttered out, "We can hold the first meeting tomorrow!" he said, smiling weakly.

 ***** Next evening, Hogwarts**

The Possessed student walked down the hall to the first floor girls bathroom.

Down the chute went the student.

The basilisk was waiting as instructed.

The serpentine voice of Voldemort spoke in parseltongue.

~ _Today, we shall hunt!~_

 ***** End of Chapter.**


	16. The Duelling Club

**An** **: Finally, the duelling club! I have lengthened the scene incredibly so that there's actual duelling, something that will exist more in this story than it did in canon. Lockhart will be as stupid as in canon, where he can't block a simple stunner, so don't be too surprised when Harry can curb-stomp him.**

 ***** Lockhart's duelling club**

"Welcome to the Duelling Club! In talks with Professor Dumbledore about his recent tussle, I decided to pass on a small modicum of my talent to you young children, I suggested that he partner with me, but being a very busy man, my new partner, recommended by the headmaster is…, drumroll please…, Professor Snape! Don't worry, I'll leave your Potions Professor in one piece for your classes tomorrow… just about."

Lockhart laughed vainly as Snape scowled, looking like he would very much like to break Lockhart into itty bitty pieces and throw him in the Thames.

"First off, we'll have a duelling tournament for this lesson, just for fun and the winner from each age group will get to fight me to see where you need to get to."

Lockhart seemed a bit nervous at the idea of fighting them himself, but they were KIDS after all, he could claim he was going easy on them if he lost to one of the higher years.

The age groups were divided into years 1-3, years 4-5, and years 6-7.

Harry grinned, he'd practised his skills quite a bit, especially since the performance by Dumbledore and Voldemort that left anything he'd seen before in the dust. He was itching to try out his new skills.

"Remember, fight to knock out the opponent, not fatally injure!" Lockhart grinned, "Sometimes I can get a little carried away myself…" he said, as if he had the strength to back it up.

Harry's first opponent was a third year Asian Ravenclaw girl, who looked confident going up against a second year, even this second year.

Harry started with the standard bow and then immediately started shooting spells, reducing and transforming the wand motions to a series of quick whips and cracks as jets of rainbow coloured lights emitted from his wand, most blinking out against Chang's bright blue shield, while the lithe girl rolled out from under the area of fire and sent back a few of her own, formidable and high level spells but not containing the speed that Harry possessed with his practise of proper duelling techniques.

Harry weaved through the area of the spells, which were relatively accurate but far enough apart that they failed to build any pressure on the younger boy who responded with another string of spells, this time putting more power into it, crashing Chang's shield and forcing her to throw herself out of the way, a trick that Harry was ready for.

A stunner was waiting in the corner Cho hurtled herself into, meeting a hastily summoned chair and destroying it.

Lying on the floor, Cho was at a major disadvantage, gasping for breath and trying to block as many of Harry's spells as she could, rolling herself onto her feet somewhat awkwardly, shooting back a spell or two when she got the split second chance but nothing she sent hit Harry who looked like his multiple strings of spells hadn't taken much out of him.

Harry waved his wand around in intricate patterns and directed a strong jet of water out of his wand, crashing right through Chang's shield and taking on the likeness of a lion's head, smashing right into the girl and knocking her against the wall, drenching her and leaving her shivering and shaken, falling prey to a causal stunner from Harry that won him the game.

Harry cracked his knuckles and smiled, Cho was considered one of the best duellers in the younger age group and was the favourite to win, though his fight had been mildly challenging, he could beat the girl with relative ease, meaning he was doing quite well on duelling practise.

His next few battles were pitifully easy, most falling to his first barrage of spells that was relatively simple and one of the simplest textbook barrage techniques that any respectable dueller could perform.

Draco Malfoy was a bit more of a challenge, having been taught how to fight a little bit dirty by his father.

Malfoy fought with scare tactics reminiscent to the death eaters, his first move was to conjure a large snake, which Harry promptly vanished and sent a burst of air to clear Malfoy's smoke-screen, catching the pureblood heir with a stunner once he managed to press him properly in one-on-one magical combat, after Harry outmanoeuvred Draco and pushed his advantage.

The last battle of his group was him against Hermione who had also done remarkably well though she certainly looked worse for wear.

Harry started with a slightly more complex opening streak, all off which either hit Hermione's shield or were dodged by the witch who moved forward aggressively, something not normally done against a faster opponent, as less space meant less dodge time.

Hermione rapid fired spells at Harry, faster than Cho had, unfortunately, while she had speed, she didn't have efficiency in movements and insisted on separate movements for each spell and less fluid motion which meant that Harry still had the upper hand despite being pushed back a bit by Hermione's furious casting. Harry spurted another stream of water, using his recently learned basic elemental magic to it's best.

Hermione sent a freezing charm at the water with froze it, letting it act as a shield for Hermione as she shot her spells around the ice, which Harry took 3 spells to tear down the hindrance and once more continue the battles, fighting hard now, his spells getting harder and harder, pushing the bookish girl back, lest she get hit.

With her on the back foot again, her edge was lost and the smart witch couldn't keep up with Harry's heated barrage for much longer.

Hermione started to slow, stopping her attacks completely and reinforcing her shield, building her magic and throwing one last strong stunner before one of Harry's clipped her and she fell, unconscious.

Harry was breathing hard, Hermione was as good, if not better than Cho Chang, and quite a challenge for him, despite his pretty much assured victory.

Harry watched as a Hufflepuff, Cedric something-or-other, won the 4th/5th years and some Gryffindor won the 6th/7th year tournament as well.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **I hope you enjoyed, Lockhart duelling will be next chapter.**


	17. Arcturus Black

**DRUMROLL PLEASE!**

 **An: I've made Lockhart a little (LITTLE) stronger than canon, in that he can perform spells, just so that his performance isn't nothing at all.**

 **An2: I'm speeding up the plot of canon quite a bit, so that I won't be focussing on things that happened in canon TOO MUCH so that I can focus on some of the ideas that I have for this story**

 **An3: ALSO, I did take Arcturus from** _ **Honour Thy Blood**_ **, my character isn't exactly the same but the essential concept for the character is from that fanfiction so I would like to acknowledge it. Sorry for the super long Ans. :-)**

 **MINOR REVISION: As CaseLC pointed out in his review, the line** "just in time to come across , hanging dead, or petrified his mind corrected, on the wall." **should include "a cat", this was not that I forgot to add the cat but rather that I wrote , which fanfiction thought was a url (i think), so when I tried to update, it didn't work, but as of now, I have added "a cat" rather than and that should fix the problem. If you've read this chapter already, don't bother reading again. Thanks!**

 ***** Duelling Club**

Lockhart seemed exceedingly nervous from the battles but smiled shakily.

"We're running a bit short of time, but I'll do as many of the duels as I can…" Lockhart said, sounding like he was concerned about them getting back to bed and not his own reputation, "Let's have young Harry up here first!"

Harry smiled politely and came up to the stage.

Harry inclined his head elegantly, Lockhart bowed comically deep and flung his arm into the air, sending the first spell, a weak expelliarmus which went way over Harry's head.

Harry didn't even move from his spot as Lockhart sent spells flying into the walls.

One came sort of close to Harry and he caught the spell on his wand and flung it back, hitting Lockhart in the nose and having his wand fall out of his hand.

Harry threw his best combo at Lockhart, sending Lockhart flying, giving him a red nose, a black eye, several painful stinging hexes, tripping him in mid-air, forcing him to summersault and sending his regained wand flying into Harry's hand the way powerful disarming curses did.

Lockhart landed with a thud and a groan and Harry could have sworn he saw Snape smile.

"Oh, Professor Lockhart! You didn't have to go THAT easy on me… I really want to improve, how about another one where you don't hold back, I want you to be brutally honest about my skill." Harry said earnestly, in a way that wouldn't allow Lockhart to slip through.

A trickle of blood seeped through Lockhart's lips from the impact but he smiled jitterily.

"Sure my boy, but go easy on me, these injuries might slow me down a bit."

Harry nodded deferentially and took his stance, which Lockhart clumsily reciprocated.

"Stupefy!" Lockhart went for the simple (enough for him to understand) but efficient strategy and sending a weak stunner in the approximate direction of Harry, following it up with a Petrificus Totalus, which Harry had to actually block with a shield.

Lockhart briefly let the triumph of getting a shot near his target take over his face, and this time, Harry sent a knockback hex right at the unnaturally white grin that Lockhart possessed.

Lockhart's front two teeth cracked, marring his smile and getting a wail of dismay and tears welling up in his eyes from that.

Harry feigned concern while the student populace sniggered at the expense of their defence professor.

Snape dismissed the class, after it was ascertained that Lockhart was inconsolable.

Harry left the class and was heading to dinner when he heard the voice.

~ _Rip… Tear… KILL!~_

With extremely ironic foresight, Harry slipped on his invisibility cloak, following the voice as it moved through the walls, leading him down to the second floor girl's bathroom just in time to come across a cat, hanging dead, or petrified his mind corrected, on the wall.

Harry was horrorstruck, especially by the message in the background.

MUDBLOODS BEWARE!

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED!

Harry heard people coming up behind him and deigned to get out of there before someone bumped into him, implicating him for the crime as he was under his invisibility cloak.

*** **Inside a very specific diary…**

Tom Riddle laughed with glee, his possession had gone much smoother than expected.

The silly blond Ravenclaw was the perfect target, losing her mother had made her weak and malleable, the bullying by other ravenclaws only exacerbated the issue.

Tom had an almost perfect grasp on her only a few months into the school year.

Today, he had his first kill… well petrification… and a cat, but still, baby steps…

She was a prisoner inside her own mind, not only for the short periods that Tom had been able to previously control her for but almost all the time, she only gained brief moments of lucidity.

It would only be days… weeks at most before he gained complete control…

Then the great Lord Voldemort would finally return!

*** **Black Manor**

The century old Black Lord awoke with a hacking cough.

Arcturus Black's wrinkled skin stretched across his hardened face as he yawned making him look almost youthful for a second.

He got out of his elegant bed with surprising ease for a man of 114 years, cracking the old joints of his body, held together largely by magic.

He headed to the large duelling room that the manor of his family believed, beginning to go through his katas, one by one, going through his morning routine that kept him fit and agile at his 144 years of age.

Contrary to what his modern relatives believed, the original motto of the Blacks was "Pure of Magic" and not "Pure of Blood" as his insane daughter Walburga and his insane _grand_ daughter Bellatrix had perverted it.

Every day, he regretted the choice he had made to hand family affairs down to his daughter Walburga and her husband who ended up being basically her puppet.

The old man allowed himself to reminisce in memories of when he was younger, fitter, stronger…

He had been one of the leading generals of the war for England, against Grindelwald, alongside his long-time friend Charlus Potter and Albus Dumbledore.

Around the peak of the first war against Voldemort, in the 1970s, he himself was approaching his hundredth year of life, and wasn't keeping up with his age as well as the great Hogwarts Headmaster.

Still, since the death of his friend Charlus, he and his old colleague Albus were the only ones capable of facing off against Voldemort, and Dumbledore utilised a hands off espionage strategy that didn't lead to much fight back.

Unfortunately, the Voldemort war was much closer to home and had hit the British Ministry much harder than thought possible, they had lost dozens of their best fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

After Harris Bones' untimely death, Bagnold's reign over the ministry had been a nightmare for Britain and a dream for Voldemort.

The Ministry withdrew support from the war and left Dumbledore to form his own vigilante group while Arcturus himself tried to do the best he could on his own, being quite a formidable dueller.

A fact, that had to be grasped about magical wars, was that while there were armies involved, up to hundreds of wizards and witches, the battle was usually decided by the leaders, the truly powerful who popped up once every handful of decades.

While the Death Eaters and the Aurors existed and fought each other actively in battles, the war would only be over when somebody, Albus, Arcturus or maybe somebody else, fought and defeated Voldemort in one on one battle.

It had been the same with the Grindelwald war, while the allies were winning heavily, especially on the muggle side of things, it was Dumbledore's duel with Grindelwald that finally decided the war.

That was just the way things tended to go.

Thus, in the heart of the Voldemort war, Arcturus challenged the upstart Dark Lord before he got any older and lot more of his magic, and before the sprightly young Voldemort gained more power.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

It was later called the battle of magical London. Magical London being an entirely magical city that was raised high into the sky and hidden from muggles.

That city does not exist today.

It was a great and terrible battle which Arcturus remembered vividly, the voice of Tom Marvolo Riddle…

They exchanged spells first, moving up and up in level as behind both duellers rubble exploded, and was sent flying back at the opponent.

Arcturus was the first to throw off the kiddy gloves, sending a whip of fire at Voldemort who created a serpent of water that ran itself right through it, turning to black smoke and throwing itself at Arcturus, who waved his wand, having the very wind bend to his will and throw the foul smoke back at Voldemort like a super-powered wind blower.

The Dark Lord rose on a tidal wave of necromancy bigger than the biggest building in the city, crushing various monuments in the evacuated city and he hurtled towards Arcturus who was dwarfed by the giant wave of black magic.

Arcturus waved his wand expansively, and a tidal wave of equal measure approached from his side, created not of black magic but of white flame.

The older wizard took a magic enhanced leap that would not have been otherwise possible, reaching over both of the tidal waved, using the wind itself to hold himself high in the sky, conjuring a full fledged tornado and sending it flying at Voldemort.

The Dark Lord whipped his wand, sending a knife of darkness cutting right through the conjuration of wind, halting only when it met Arcturus' hastily conjured magical shield as he returned fire with several decidedly grey (by the ministry's definition) magic.

Voldemort let out a laugh as he effortlessly flicked away the bone-breakers that would have overwhelmed most wizards without a fight.

"Pitiful, if this is the best that the great Arcturus Black can offer…" the vile snake-face gloated as he faced off against the 96 year old wizard.

"Please, you're not even worthy to kiss my boots, Riddle!" Arcturus spat as he attempted to regain his breath and deflect the barrage of insanely fast spells that was being thrown upon him.

Voldemort turned to his strongest combo, his "Unforgivable string" that comprised mostly of Avada kedavras and Crucios stringed together with a few extra quick-to-cast nasty curses and hexes thrown in just to speed up the rate of fire.

"Avis!" Arcturus roared, conjuring hundreds of paper birds with razor sharp metal beaks and the majority of the string just hit the birds, as the remainder of the flock went flying at Voldemort at break-neck speeds, only to be incinerated by a small fire whip that melted the metal in the beaks and destroyed the paper utterly.

Voldemort swung back the molten metal at Arcturus, who defended himself by pulling up a water shield that hissed loudly against the molten metal but managed to stop it… just barely.

Arcturus sent a hail of arrows created from pure light magic flying at Voldemort who created the likeness of a huge shield above his head from dark magic, before crunching it into a big ball and throwing it at Arcturus, who apparated with a soft crack and appeared behind Voldemort, sending a heavy flood of water hurtling at speeds high enough to break every bone in Voldemort's body.

The Dark Lord spun around, ignoring the ball of dark magic that destroyed the Ministry of Magic building.

Voldemort managed to erect a hasty ice-shield but it shattered against the pressure of the water, and Voldemort was forcefully pushed away by the water, not injuring him badly but leaving him open, an opportunity that Arcturus would not leave alone. A bone-breaker hit Voldemort's leg and several other curses deflected off a shield conjured in the heat of the moment.

As soon as Voldemort hit a building and stopped moving, he apparated back to where Arcturus was, moving behind him like the older man had done previously and creating a big hammer of darkness, smashing it down on the unsuspecting Black Lord's head.

Arcturus spun around, moving pure light magic up in an attempt at a shield, only stopping the hammer briefly, enough to stop it from killing him.

It slammed into him like a muggle lorry, and Arcturus was almost knocked from consciousness as he looked around at the wreckage of the city falling apart around him.

As his vision faded, Arcturus shot a final bone-breaker at Voldemort and apparated away with a loud painful crack, ending up in his own fidelius-protected Black Manor, in critical condition.

He spent several months recovering, by the time of which, Harry Potter had already taken down the Dark Lord.

Coming out of his reminiscing, Arcturus went to fetch his breakfast from his house-elf.

Dark Times were coming again, he knew it.

He could feel the darkness moving, for it was not "dark spells" as classified by the ministry that were truly evil, it was necromancy, calling upon dark forces to do your bidding that was actually dark and the darkness was stirring.

Arcturus was preparing himself for a war.

One that would probably be the last that he ever saw.

*** **End of Chapter**


	18. Sacking Lockhart and Elemental Magic

**AN: Sorry I made no sense in last chapter's Revision, I used the name of the cat with a dot, and it was removed as it had been in the actual chapter, stupid of me. I do hope you enjoy even if this chapter is slightly less action-oriented.**

 ***** Hogwarts**

Harry joined the back of the crowd that was gaping at the seemingly dead cat.

Filch was throwing a hissy fit and demanding punishment.

"With all due respect, Mr Filch, I don't believe that punishments can be handed out without identifying a culprit." Harry said, tired of the man's ranting.

Filch turned to Harry.

"YOU! It must have been you!"

Harry raised an eyebrow, "I just arrived here, how could I have killed your cat."

Dumbledore chose this moment to hunker up to the cat's body, "It's merely petrified." He said.

"I DEMAND PUNISHMENT!" Filch roared.

 ***** Longbottom Manor**

Dowager Longbottom was many things, a member of the Wizengamot and the Hogwarts board of governors among other things.

She didn't receive many letters, apart from those from Gringotts or the ministry, which is why she was surprised to see the beautiful snowy owl enter her house with a small package with a letter.

 _To: Dowager Longbottom, Hogwarts Board of Governors,_

 _Greeting, Dowager Longbottom, I trust you are well. I am writing this letter in concern over the qualifications of one of the professors at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am afraid that Professor Lockhart does not seem to maintain the high standard of education that Hogwarts had upheld for centuries and takes pride in. Therefore, I am officially lodging a complaint against Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, with memory evidence of his incompetence attached below,_

 _Thanking you profusely,_

 _Heir Potter_

Augusta Longbottom was surprised.

Not an emotion she'd felt in quite a while, not since wartime in fact.

She knew Lockhart was a bit of a ponce but she hadn't expected an OFFICIAL complaint and hadn't supposed she could do anything about it in the Hogwarts board which was largely populated by those happy with the low standard of education and unwilling to get off their asses and change things.

With memory evidence though… depending on the memory, there was a high chance that she could get Lockhart kicked out.

With that in mind, she dove into the pensieve.

*** **Later**

'That ponce lost to a second year!' Augusta thought numbly, "I _have to_ call a meeting about this…"

*** **Hogwarts Board Meeting**

Around the room sat 13 people, the people in charge of the board of Hogwarts Governors, which consisted of Dowager Longbottom, Lucius Malfoy, and 11 shadowy figures who shall go unnamed.

Malfoy turned his bored gaze to Augusta, "Pray tell, why have you called this emergency meeting, I had… business to attend to, Longbottom."

"There has been a claim of incompetency on the part of Professor GIlderoy Lockhart, and after reviewing the evidence provided in the form of a memory, I believe that he should be removed but we do need to vote on it."

"Perhaps showing us the memory would help us understand?" Shadowy Figure #1 asked.

Augusta nodded and brought out a shrunken pocket-pensieve from her… pocket and the board viewed the memory.

They voted.

*** **Next day, Hogwarts**

Augusta strode through the halls of the old castle with purpose and entered the Great Hall during breakfast time.

"GIlderoy Lockhart, by the order of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, you have been declared grossly incompetent for the position of teaching that has been bestowed upon you, and the job is revoked, active as of now, please vacate the premises within one week, you may keep your pay for this month." The Dowager intoned.

Lockhart paled, "This would destroy any remaining vestiges of his credibility.

"Now, now, Augusta, can I call you Augusta, I'm sure whatever complaint from the students you've received is certainly exaggerated."

Longbottom raised an eyebrow, "So, you would like to keep your position?"

Lockhart nodded eagerly at the ray of hope.

"Fine then boy, face me in a duel, regular duelling standards, lets go."

Augusta stiffly bowed slightly to the blonde professor who looked extremely nervous but decided he could probably beat the doddery old woman.

Big mistake on his part.

Augusta gracefully moved out of the way of the first weak-ass stunner from Lockhart and retaliated with a trip-stun basic move that finished off Lockhart.

"Dear God man, you're even worse than I thought you were." Augusta exclaimed in disgust.

As Lockhart went to pack his things, a loud cheer rose for Dowager Longbottom, led by none other than Neville himself.

"You go gran!"

*** **Hogwarts Library**

 _Elemental Magic remains some of the most powerful combative magic known to Wizard-Kind. While many would argue that spells themselves can provide a variety of effects far more easily and with far less power than elemental magic demands, but most curses (with the exception of the unforgivables) can be shielded against relatively easily, and ALL curses, including the unforgivable can be dodged, being just a beam of compressed energy until contact._

 _Elemental Magic on the other hand cannot be easily shielded, can overwhelm an opponent easily and is usually impossible to dodge depending on the usage._

 _Prominent masters of elemental magic in recent history include:_

 _Albus Dumbledore: Current Headmaster of Hogwarts and possibly greatest source of magical knowledge._

 _FIlius Flitwick: Professor of Charms at Hogwarts School and former duelling champion, winning the world championship in the years 1964,1965 and 1967 before finally retiring from the international duelling community in 1969._

 _Nicholas Flamel: Recently deceased alchemist and the only known recent creator of the Philosopher's stone, pioneer in the development of the art of elemental magic_

 _Perenelle Flamel: Wife to Nicholas Flamel, recently deceased_

 _Charlus Potter: Former Lord Potter and War General, deceased_

 _Arcturus Black: Lord Black, current status unknown, also a war general_

 _Helsinki Hauti: Lord Hauti, reigning duelling champion_

 _These are only a few of the most famous users of elemental magic, there are hundreds in this world, surprisingly less than you'd think though, considering that in the magical world, all 3 million wizards and witches have the capability to wield this field._

 _This book will detail only the simplest of this powerful branch of magic, but be warned that this is not for those with weak magical cores, or those undedicated, Elemental Magic and its intricacies can only be truly mastered by those with true dedication._

 _***_ _ **End of Chapter**_


	19. Old Men Talk

**An: In regards to a few reviews I've gotten, I'll refer to McGonagall as McGonagall from now on, cuz 'McG' makes me seem lazy and it really isn't that much trouble that I'm avoiding by typing McG. Also, I probably could use a beta on this story, but I still have no idea how that entire system works. Oh ya, I might as well point out that I don't and have never had a beta on any work I've every posted on this site, which is part of the reason (aside from the fact that I suck) that a little bit… some of… most of… my work seems a little rough around the edges. If you've read this entire block of text, thank you for reading my extremely boring rant and renewed thanks to the 165 (what a round number!) people who don't hate this story!**

 **An2: Also in regards to Arcturus, his plans with Sirius will begin in this chapter, but do remember I specified that Arcturus was recovering from the brink of death from the battle with Voldemort, while Harry beat him, which is also roughly the time Sirius was captured, so Arcturus wasn't around to enforce a trial. I'm sorry for including an extended AN but I just had to. (not really)**

*** **Black Manor, 1981, after his duel with Voldy**

Arcturus Black flashed into the living room of Black Manor, bleeding to his death on the luxurious carpet.

Tippy the house elf apparated into the living room, at the sound of Arcturus' arrival, a steaming tea platter already in her hands as she knew Arcturus would want.

With a loud shriek, the tea platter hit the floor and shattered on contact, as the house-elf put the Black Lord into a long-term stasis charm, similar to cryogenics that would prevent immediate death and apparated the dying man to the first aid centre of the house.

Thankfully for Arcuturus, he had made sure that his house elf was trained extensively in medication, and Tippy managed to get Arcturus out of critical condition quite quickly, however, it seemed that that Voldemort had laid several curses on Arcturus by the time the older man had managed to flee the fight.

For the next several years, Tippy nursed her master back to health, waiting for certain curses to run their course, and refusing to take him to St Mungos because of his own orders while he was half-lucid enough to slur out orders.

Until the year 1987, Arcturus healed, keeping himself a recluse from the world outside and eventually being declared a casualty of the war, until he was well enough to venture outside the fidelius-hidden manor.

After many awkward questions, he found that Voldemort had been defeated by his sister's grandson and his own grandson, Sirius had been placed in Askaban for betraying James and Lily Potter, preposterous!

He knew his grandson better than that.

He supported him fleeing to Charlus and Dorea.

He refused to kick him out of the family.

He believed in his grandson, but unfortunately the Black Family, led by his daughter had brought their name to ruin to the point where Sirius was arrested for basically nothing.

However, he couldn't get his grandson out of jail without evidence, and he knew he had to gather it.

The first thing he found when he enquired after the Sirius Black file is that, apart from the arrest under suspicion filings, there was no trial listing or any sentencing, so why was his grandson in Askaban!

After gathering all of this, he went and looked at the last letter Sirius had ever sent him.

 _Hey Gramps!_

 _I know you haven't been replying to my letters for a while, and people suspect you're dead, but my owl finds you everytime. I hope you're okay wherever you are, either way, this is probably the last letter I'll send for a while. James, Lily, Remus, Peter and me are going into hiding. James and Lily made Peter the secret keeper on my suggestion, I'm playing decoy for him as this letter reaches you. Despite the fact that none of the marauders would EVER betray one of our own, Lily has urged me to write to you that in James and Lily's will, it is specified that Peter was their secret keeper as a contingency to keep me out of Askaban, not that we'd ever be betrayed,_

 _Sirius_

He had to get access to the Potters' will, which had not been read for some reason, which meant making contact with the Potter boy… the Potter boy who had been missing for the last decade…

Well then, his best hope of getting Sirius out of prison was locating the Potter boy.

*** **September 1991**

Harry Potter had finally returned to the Wizarding World!

Arcturus had tried writing several letters to him, but they had all been returned with the magical signature of Albus Dumbledore on them.

Bloody interfering nuisance.

He knew Albus was working for the greater good the way he always did, keeping Harry away from somebody who pretended to be a dead man and head of the Black family, but at this point, he was rather annoyed of the old man keeping Harry from contacting him.

There was only one way to get to Harry Potter now.

He would have to keep Albus.

*** **Headmaster's quarters**

Albus Dumbledore was relaxing in the living room of the Headmaster's quarters, a surprisingly luxurious suite when his fireplace turned green, something that surprised Albus, as his personal floo wasn't a public one and most people who had access to it were either… indisposed or unlikely to call.

"Yes?" Albus asked.

"Let me through Dumbledore!" the annoyed baritone of Arcturus Black called out.

Albus nearly had a heart attack.

"Come through…" Albus said, planning to ambush the man coming through his floo, as he was obviously the person who was imitating being Arcturus in the many letters to Harry.

The man stepped through the floo, and for a second Albus hesitated, the man really did look like his long-dead friend, but that was all the more reason for Albus to take revenge on the man spitting on Arcturus' grave by imitating him like this.

Dumbledore immediately shot a complex chain of spells, all meant to bind the intruder, with an elemental ice binding to follow up, a chain that, ironically, no one short of the real Arcturus Black or Voldemort would be able to break through.

But the intruder did, with relative ease too.

"Seriously Albus, you see an old colleague for the first time in fucking years and the first thing you do is try to chain me up?" Arcturus' voice broke the awed silence as his wand smoked lightly with the quick counters to the spells and the fire elemental magic that melted the ice chains.

"Arcturus…?"

"Yes it's me, you old fool, who did you think it was?"

"But… you're dead, I accepted that!" Dumbledore said numbly.

"I never died, do you think that upstart Dark Lord could take me out?"

Dumbledore grinned weakly, "You're the same as ever Black."

"So are you, you meddling old fool, reflecting all my letters to my grand-nephew."

Dumbledore looked slightly sheepish, "I thought that they were from dark families pretending to be you…"

"And what dark family would pretend to be another dark family to get on Potter's good side?"

"But you were-"

"-his grandfather's friend, but you know how dark my family is considered, especially with that misconception around my grandson…"

"Sirius Black… Arcturus, I know you've been out for a while, but Sirius Black betrayed James and Lily… I'm sorry Arcturus…"

"My grandson was imprisoned without a trial, he is innocent! He was their decoy, and the proof is in Potter's will, there's a reason I want to talk to the boy."

Dumbledore looked alarmed at the idea of Sirius being falsely imprisoned.

"I-I thought you were going to talk to him about the coming darkness…"

"So you think he's going to be the one…"

"There is a prophecy."

Arcturus raised an eyebrow, "It isn't often that the fates themselves handpick the frontrunner of the war themselves, how have you trained the boy?"

Dumbledore looked slightly embarrassed, "I'm letting him have his childhood, he needs to grow up properly."

"What nonsense are you speaking Dumbledore! Have you truly become senile in your old age! You know how close the darkness is, I know you can feel the grasp of the dark magic spreading! He must be trained at once, if he hasn't already been, it seems like there's one more thing to add to the list of things that I must talk to the boy about…"

Arcturus looked Dumbledore in the eyes.

"You know the boy will do well with your guidance as well, will you stick your head in the sand and leave he his training alone or aid me?" Arcturus asked with heat in his voice.

Dumbledore held Arcturus' gaze before nodding slowly.

"I will."

*** **End of Chapter**


	20. Old Men (plus Harry) Talk

**An: Awesomeness Ensues. BTW, yes, it was Harry reading up on elemental magic, sorry I didn't actually clarify that.**

 ***** Hogwarts, Present**

The year was going on as well as it could with the heir of Slytherin on the loose, threatening to petrify/kill somebody.

Hermione and Harry had done a fair bit of research on the heir of Slytherin and according to the school records, Hagrid had been expelled for releasing the beast.

"I can't believe it Harry! Hagrid is always so nice, there isn't a harmful bone in his body." Hermione protested.

Harry rolled his eyes, "It is highly unlikely that Hagrid of all people is the heir of Slytherin, personally, with the timing of the event, it was probably around the time when Voldemort attended school, so my money is on him… though I guess we can't discount Hagrid, not after how sneaky Quirrell managed to be…" Harry said thoughtfully, "Maybe we can go down to him and-"

"Harry Potter, Professor Dumbledore wants you in his office."

*** **Dumbles' office**

"So what DO you know about the boy?" Arcturus asked Dumbledore.

"He is extremely intelligent, he excels in all his classes, has excellent wand-work, lives with muggles and understands their world." Dumbledore said.

"What about our world. He IS the Heir Potter and if things go sourly probably the Heir Black too."

"Well… in the interest of not letting him get too big of a head, I haven't informed the boy about his expansive vaults and influence in magical Britain."

"You are a goddamn fool; the boy needs to know his power if he truly is going to be the one."

Dumbledore sighed, "Very well, it seems like I have a lot that I need to make up for…"

Dumbledore briefly exited his office and got a passing student to call Harry for him.

"There, he should be here in a few moments." Dumbledore said, even as the password gargoyle relayed Harry's arrival.

"Let him in." Dumbledore said.

Just a second later, the two old men heard sharp raps on the old wooden door to the headmaster's office.

"Come in Harry!" Dumbledore called out.

Harry entered the room, noting the unknown man who seemed to be about Dumbledore's age.

"Professor Dumbledore." Harry nodded.

"You might be wondering why I've called you up here…" Dumbledore trailed off, unsure of what to start with.

"Yes." Harry supplied an answer to the question.

"… Well there was a prophecy made about you, one I was hoping to keep from you for at least a few more years to preserve your innocence… however certain friends of mine…" Dumbledore glanced over at Arcturus, "certain friends of mine have opened my eyes to the fact that you need to know now so you can be prepared."

Dumbledore looked Harry in the eye and slowly recounted the entirety of the prophecy.

Harry frowned, "Wasn't this prophecy fulfilled the night that Voldemort attacked my parents and I?"

"I'm afraid that the wording of prophecies is never to be pondered over or relied on, which is why I didn't want to tell you but since Voldemort is still after your blood, it would seem that you will be in some way important in the coming war anyway."

Harry frowned, "Why are we so sure that there WILL be a war, can't we stop Voldemort while he's still a wraith."

Dumbledore and Arcturus exchanged glances, "Well, Voldemort has used dark rituals to anchor his soul to this world. It is a disgusting piece of magic by the name of a horcrux… He made seven of them but we don't know what they are. Since the end of last year, I have been searching for them with absolutely no success, but while the horcruxes exist and Lord Voldemort's followers still exist, war is likely. However, much more so than that is the fact that Darkness is rising at an alarming rate which means that war is basically imminent."

Harry raised his eyebrows, "But dark magic is just magic. Why do you talk of it like it is sentient?"

Arcturus took over the explanation, "What the idiots at the ministry classify as dark magic is just magic, there's nothing really dark about it. Actual dark magic, or The Darkness as many call it is a sentient being that used to have a vice-hold on this planet at some point, however with all the magicals in this world combined, Darkness was vanished as a whole into the void but it's tendrils remained to snake out into our world and remain present, trying to return to our world. What we know as necromancy is basically a summoning spell that pulls little bits of the Darkness back from the void, bits that then reside in the Necromancers that use them, at least Grindelwald, as dangerous and evil as he was, was smart enough to not mess with necromancy and drew a large amount of his magic purely from himself instead of intoxicating himself with the nigh endless power of the Darkness, however the one you know as Voldemort recklessly brought huge chunks of the Darkness back to strengthen himself."

Dumbledore nodded gravely, "Currently, by my estimate, approximately 2% of Darkness is residing in our world and about 1.9% of that is because of Voldemort."

"Actually Albus, make that almost 9% in the world." A smooth voice cut in from Dumbledore's fireplace.

"Nicolas! Not you too!" Dumbledore groaned.

"So… Can I come on through?" The Alchemist asked.

Dumbledore merely waved his hand and the famed Alchemist came through the fireplace.

"Any other old friends of mine who are coming back to life?" Dumbledore groaned.

"Not that I know of, Al." Nicolas grinned jovially.

"Uh… I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something but in this entire mess neither of you have given me names." Harry said.

"Lord Arcturus Black, me and Albus will be training you up, and trying to free my grandson."

"My name is Nicolas, Albus used to be my apprentice, a couple years ago."

Harry made the connection immediately despite the lack of a last name, "Nicolas Flamel! But you were declared dead!"

"I didn't really destroy the stone; this just gives me and Perenelle an extra layer of security." He said before turning to Albus seriously, "Me and Perenelle have removed ourselves from all wizarding conflict since we became immortal but I have a feeling that our help will be sorely needed, especially as the war generals from the last wars are getting especially old, and the 'one' as you call it is just a boy still."

"Why do you keep calling me 'the one'." Harry asked suspiciously.

"While most wizards participate in our wars to an extent, a war is really only fought by a few big figures. For example, in the Grindelwald war, your grandfather Charlus, Albus and Arcturus were the main figureheads of our side and the war was only won when Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald one-on-one despite overwhelming victories for our side in many battles. This is because unlike muggles, who can arm themselves en masse but are restricted by what they can do, magical power tends to be heavily concentrated in a select few, and only those of that few who choose to fight end up being the deciding figures." Nicolas explained.

"So, because of the prophecy, you think I am the 'one'?" Harry air-quoted the 'one'.

Dumbledore nodded gravely, "If not THE one then at the very least, one of the important figures in this war like your grandfather before you… and if Nicolas is right about the 9% then there is no avoiding war."

"Of course I'm right about this Albus, you of all people should know how well I can detect the darkness."

Albus nodded then turned to Harry, "Arcturus and I have decided to start your training slightly smaller, your schedule has been edited so that you have two hours free after breakfast every day, you will report to us then for some physical training, then after all your classes, you will report to us at 5 through 7 for some magical training, we will make sure that your homework is not compulsory as I know it can take up all your free time to complete it… of course, all of this is only if you agree to it, but with the upcoming war, I strongly suggest that you do, but if you do then you're in it for the mong haul, including 5 hour sessions on Saturdays and 3 hour sessions on Sundays. Are you okay with that, Harry?"

Harry held Dumbledore's gaze for a long while before nodding.

"Excellent, we can begin just after breakfast tomorrow."

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Stuff gets real.**


	21. Old Men Teach

**An: This story is going to take off a bit from now, thanks Sandra for the review, I'll make sure to keep your advice in mind, Thanks to everybody else who has reviewed as well! On with the chapter.**

 **PS: I know I'm doing the petrifications out of order, it really doesn't matter.**

 ***** Next Day, Great Hall**

The atmosphere overall was far more tense than it had been in Harry and Hermione's first year.

Another kid, one of Harry's biggest and most annoying fanboys, Colin Creevey had been petrified as well which skyrocketed the levels of tension.

The first years roamed in big clumps, though Harry noticed one blonde Ravenclaw walking on her own most of the time.

Harry told Hermione about the offer of training that he had accepted and Hermione immediately wanted in.

"You know how much I would love to be trained, please can you ask Professor Dumbledore and Lord Black whether I can take part in your training!" Hermione pleaded with her best friend.

"Of course, training will be more fun with you there too." Harry said before going up to Dumbledore where he sat at the teacher's table.

"Professor Dumbledore, would it be acceptable if Hermione also attended my remedial lessons with me?" Harry asked, making his extra training with Dumbledore sound like catch-up work, possibly for History or Potions, Harry's two less-than-perfect subjects.

Dumbledore smiled happily, "Most certainly! Companionship will stop you from getting completely enveloped by work."

Harry nodded, "I trust she'll have the same exemptions from extra homework?"

Dumbledore nodded, "Both yours and Miss Granger's work are good enough that the teacher's agree that as long as you pay very close attention in class, you should both manage just fine." Dumbledore assured Harry.

McGonagall, who was sitting next to Dumbledore nodded, "Yes Mr Potter, you have been doing exemplarily in Transfiguration… I'm sure you'll do well in battle transfiguration when Albus and Arcturus get around to it. I'll hand you and Miss Granger your altered schedules after breakfast." Leaning in and whispering the last part to Harry.

Harry nodded gratefully, "Thank you Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall."

Harry went back to the Gryffindor table.

"So?" Hermione asked.

"You're in, McGonagall will give us our adjusted schedules after breakfast, but I know we'll be going immediately to Professor Dumbledore's office."

Hermione nodded, happy to be included in the extra training.

*** **Dumbledore's office**

Harry and Hermione landed up at Dumbledore's office barely behind the man himself and requested entrance to the gargoyle merely seconds after Dumbledore had gone up himself.

"Come in Harry, Hermione." Dumbledore's voice called out before Harry's knuckles could even rap on the door.

Harry opened the door but must have let some of the surprise show on his face.

"Don't be too awed kiddo, Albus has some identification wards attached to his entrance carpet, it's supposed to be a protective measure, but it's turned into a cheap way to earn respect from students." Arcturus casually stated.

Harry nodded to the two old men, "Professor Dumbledore, Lord Black, Pleasure to see you again, is Mr Flamel joining us?"

"Unfortunately Nicolas has more important things to do right now, especially since we'll be doing some physical training in the morning, however he will probably be present in some of our evening session to impart knowledge on alchemy as well." Dumbledore replied.

"Where will we be training?" Harry asked as Dumbledore and Arcturus got up from the chairs they were seated in.

"One of the many secret rooms in this castle, one said to have been enchanted by Rowena Ravenclaw herself, what the elves call the Come and Go room." Dumbledore replied leading the kids up to the 7th floor and activating the room of requirement.

The door opened to a training room that had two big mats, several dummies and other bits and bobs.

Arcturus took over, "Despite being magical, physical fitness and dodging is still important, as training the body also trains the magical core and means you won't get so easily exhausted in a magical fight as many inexperienced tend to be."

Harry nodded, he had read as much.

"To start out with, I feel maybe a bit of a jog would be good for you two."

Suddenly the room expanded drastically and a huge jogging track appeared.

"Keep doing rounds until I tell you to stop." Arcturus said, looking slightly sadistic.

He had Harry and Hermione do rounds for almost 45 minutes, by which time Hermione had collapsed on the side and Harry was very slowly and painfully gasping for breath while jogging around very slowly.

"You guys really need to work on your endurance, if you get caught in an extended duel, you would wilt after about 15-20 minutes." Arcturus said disapprovingly, before moving on to having them do push-ups, sit-ups and various other exercises, leaving both children completely spent.

Overall Harry did much better than Hermione at the physical portion, because he was more athletic than Hermione, if only from Oliver's fanatical Quidditch practises and Dudley's Harry-Hunting.

Hermione was a bookworm through and through and did horribly at the physical portion and was desperately hoping the magical portion would be a little easier.

*** **Evening, Room of Requirements**

Dumbledore and Arcturus had asked Harry and Hermione to return to the room for their evening lesson.

"While the physical aspect of duelling is very underappreciated and important, most of your offensive will be in the form of magical attacks, however that does not just mean higher spell knowledge, because, while that is useful, if you can't cast quickly and accurately, you can't last. Not to mention Elemental Magic, Battle Transfiguration or Battle Alchemy, all of which we will be going into detail on later." Dumbledore lectured.

"But, for now, we will try to assess your current knowledge, try your best at attacking us, Potter, you try me, and Granger, you take Albus."

The two kids nodded before making their way to their mark and starting to fire at the two older men.

Hermione went through her expansive list of battle spells quickly, but doing every wand motion fully and switching between spells slowly, most of them very precise, however Dumbledore seemed to be swaying ever so slightly, taking him just out of the way of Hermione's spells.

On the other hand, Harry was going through several of his fastest spell-chains, casting furiously and going for casting speed to try and overwhelm the Black Lord.

Harry's aim was pretty good but not key in his strategy that was not based off particularly complex or powerful spells like Hermione but more focussed on casting speed and overall power of the string.

Arcturus had a much larger amount of spells to dodge, and batted away many of Harry's spells with his wand, moving slightly to try and avoid as many as possible but casting a quick shield with a wand that appeared in his left hand as well, to defend from many of Harry's spells.

Out of frustration that none of his attacks were connecting, Harry went for his biggest hit so far.

Elemental magic.

Harry threw a steady stream of fire straight at Arcturus, who had to move fast and respond with elemental magic himself, calling an ice-shield powerful enough to hold against the constant fire-stream and not melt into a puddle immediately.

Arcturus looked slightly impressed, "Elemental magic already, it seems you've been learning something on your own.

Dumbledore too seemed slightly impressed but the most surprising was the slow clapping coming from a different corner of the room.

"Well done, Harry!" the voice of Nicolas Flamel called out.

*** **End of Chapter.**

 **An: I hope you enjoyed.**


	22. Old Men Teach some more

***** Present**

Arcturus looked slightly impressed, "Elemental magic already, it seems you've been learning something on your own."

Dumbledore too seemed slightly impressed but the most surprising was the slow clapping coming from a different corner of the room.

"Well done, Harry!" the voice of Nicolas Flamel called out.

Harry whipped around to see an amused Flamel standing in the corner.

"You always did love the surprise entrances." Dumbledore said amused.

"It seems that you already know some duelling spell-chains and the beginnings of elemental magic which is much further than I thought you'd be, however Granger quite a bit behind you so, for today, Granger can work with Albus on spell-chains and you can work with me on elemental magic." Arcturus said.

Hermione seemed a bit disappointed to be behind Harry but went with Dumbledore eagerly.

"As Harry demonstrated quite well, spell-chains are extremely useful in a fight, they allow your casting speed to be much quicker. The biggest mistake you made in your fight with me was going for particularly high level spells that you know could be easily blocked by me. What you should have done is, like Harry, tried to overwhelm me with casting speed and get one spell through my shields. Even a single depulso can completely change the course of a battle if it distracts your opponent for long enough. Therefore, I will now demonstrate to you one of the easiest chains, it consists of only 3 spells repeated over and over, Stupefy-Depulso-Incarcerous."

Dumbledore quickly demonstrated, casting all three in less than half a second.

Hermione, out of reflex dodged the stunner but was hit by the depulso, getting thrown back and being tied up in chains from the incarcerous that she was in no place to avoid.

"See, casting all those spells together allowed me to completely overwhelm you, your biggest fault in battle is definitely your slow casting speed, so try it on me." Dumbledore said before holding out his wand like he was in a duel.

"Stupefy." Hermione shouted before moving her wand back and casting the next two spells, taking her almost 5 seconds to get out the spells.

Dumbledore swayed out of the way like he had earlier, "You have to cast them together, where the first ends, the second begins."

After several tries, Hermione had the chain down to about a second.

"That's pretty quick, now you need to keep casting the chain, over and over to try and overwhelm me." Dumbledore said.

Hermione nodded before casting the chain over and over, furiously throwing the next spell forward, falling into a bit of a pattern and being pleased at the fact that Dumbledore had to pull up a shield to defend against her barrage before suddenly lashing out with a stupefy which hit Hermione square in the chest.

When Hermione came back to consciousness a few seconds later, Dumbledore admonished her.

"Your spell-chain was excellent but you can't fall into a pattern and ignore your opponent, otherwise you'll be vulnerable to return fire." Dumbledore explained.

Hermione nodded sheepishly, embarrassed that she had gotten so caught up in her spell-casting.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the room, Arcturus was working with Harry.

"Elemental magic is possibly some of the most important magic that you'll have in a fight. It is definitely the most powerful tool you have aside from battle alchemy which takes a large amount of time and a constructed plan. Elemental magic should become a reflex to you, and instead of the stream of fire that you can conjure now, you should be able to create any figure out of fire, similar to fiendfyre in a way, however fiendfyre is Darkness and should never be summoned because it is basically an open gateway through which Darkness floods back into this world, until the opening is closed, something that is very hard to do. Today, we shall be working on turning your little stream of fire into a fire serpent, a popular move among most elementals." Arcturus lectured as Harry listened attentively.

Arcturus flicked his wand and a stream of fire similar to Harry's burst out of his wand.

"First, we need to make this bigger, the best way to do that without losing energy is to simply push more magic through your wand." Arcturus said, before throwing a spurt of magic into the fire stream making it as thick as a tree-trunk.

"Then you have to manipulate your will to will it into taking a serpentine form, then command it to do your bidding." Arcturus commanded, making the necessary edits to his own fire stream and for demonstration, shooting it at the wall, creating a huge scorch-mark on the wall.

Harry took a deep breath and created his fire stream, pushing magic into it as fast as he could, making it even thicker than Arcturus' had been then concentrated on trying to turn it into a serpent but had little success.

"You must see it as a serpent, you don't TELL it to be a serpent, you MAKE it a serpent." Arcturus said.

Keeping the Black Lord's advice in mind, Harry went for his best attempt, succeeding in having a gargantuan fire-snake pointing out of his wand and commanded it to smash into the wall like Arcturus' had.

"Very good! That is the first step to mastery, next, you need to learn to create the shape that fits your situation best in the heat of a battle. For example…" Arcturus conjured a serpent of water and hurtled it at Harry, who reflexively turned his fire into a shield of sorts, managing to stop most of the water as it turned to smoke, on contact with the fire.

"Never let go of the smoke." Arcturus said, as he pushed the entire weight of the created smoke at Harry, making the boy stumble backwards and cough as Arcturus used the distraction to throw a stunner at Harry.

"Now, we will mock-duel with only elemental magic." Arcturus commanded.

Harry nodded and Arcturus started the duel with another fire-serpent, which Harry countered with a fire wall of his own which absorbed most of Arcturus' fire, and Harry turned the entire mass into the shape of a large fireball, throwing the entire thing at Arcturus, who merely conjured a shield of water, which converted the fire into smoke, and threw the resultant into Harry's eyes, but Harry managed to use the air to clear the space around him and throw back arrows made of fire, which were all blown out by the massive gust of wind summoned by Arcturus which blew Harry of his feet, letting him be hit by another tidal wave of water, created by Arcturus, knocking the boy unconscious once more.

*** **End of Chapter.**


	23. The cliched trial of Sirius Black

**An: I may have dropped a glass of water on my keyboard…so at least for now, I'm writing in "Word for Android", so cut me some slack in this chapter. That said, I don't even know how to upload a chapter from my phone so…**

*** **Headmaster's office**

"Harry, I have something very serious to talk to you about… do you know Sirius Black?" Arcturus asked.

Harry's eyes hardened, "The man who betrayed my parents." He said simply.

Arcturus shook his head, "No, Sirius Black did not betray your parents."

"How! He was their secret-keeper, only he could-"

"-But he wasn't their secret-keeper, in his last letter to me, he said he was a decoy and proof was in the Potter will… I need to see if it's true, the boy is my grandson, I am formally requesting you to publically have your will unsealed, I already have Albus' permission, now I just need yours." Arcturus sent the boy a pleading look.

*** **Wizengamot monthly meeting**

"Our next order of business is a request by the Heir Potter, to unseal his parent's will and I, as his guardian have granted permission." Dumbledore said loudly.

"Bring forth the will." He commanded, and a goblin representative handed an old-looking scroll to Dumbledore.

 _Being of sound body and mind, I Lord James Charlus Potter, hereby declare this document as my official will._

 _Being of sound body and mind, I Lily Evans Potter, hereby declare this document as my official will._

 _We leave all our earthly possessions to our son, Heir Hadrian James 'Harry' Potter._

 _We hereby donate the sum of 100,000 galleons to the Hogwarts student fund._

 _We hereby donate the sum of 100,000 galleons to Lord Albus Wulfric Brian Dumbledore to support the war effort._

 _We hereby donate the sum of 1,000,000 galleons to Mr. Remus Lupin in hopes that he may purchase a new pair of robes._

 _We hereby donate the sum of 10,000 galleons to Heir Sirius Black though he is not in immediate need of it._

 _We hereby donate the sum of 100,000 galleons to Peter Pettigrew for being a good friend in a time of need._

 _In the case of our untimely death, we would like our son to reside with Heir Black and in the case that that it not possible, we leave it up to Lord Dumbledore to decide the temporary home for our son._

 _Lord Potter and Lady Lily Potter would like the court to recognize that their secret keeper for Godric's Hollow was Peter Pettigrew and NOT Heir Black and if Mr. Pettigrew indeed betrayed Lord and Lady Potter, his portion from the will is revoked._

 _So mote it be._

 _So mote it be._

Having read the entire will, Dumbledore looked up to see the stunned audience.

"What shit is this Dumbledore; Black is obviously guilty!" Fudge got out of his seat in an effort to look intimidating.

Amelia Bones entered the courtroom with Sirius Black in magic-restraining handcuffs, "I think you'll find, Minister, that Sirius Black did not receive a trial at the hands of my predecessor, so I shall right my wrong. Let the trial of Sirius Black begin!"

Sirius was tied up in a chair in the middle of the court.

"Sirius Black, for thirteen charges of muggle murder, and 2 charges of accessory to murder. How do you plead." Amelia intoned.

"Not guilty." The man hoarsely said.

"Administer the veritaserum." Amelia commanded but Lucius Malfoy raised his hand before the veritaserum could be administered.

"Are you sure the man is of his proper mind after so many years in Askaban?" Lucius said, sounding positively concerned for the man, "Because if it isn't, you cannot interview him under veritaserum by laws put in place by this very body."

Amelia shook her head in exasperation, "Very well, then our only evidence is a MAGICALLY-BOUND will which states that Black is not guilty so I am ready to give my vote right here and now."

In the end, the vote was close, because all the dark families and a couple of the light families voted against him, though thankfully most light and grey families followed the lead of Dumbledore and Amelia and voted in favor of Sirius.

"Heir Black, it is my pleasure to announce that you have been cleared of all charges and will be given compensation for your time in Askaban."

Sirius smiled tiredly, but a few astute families noticed Amelia's wording, _Heir_ Black when he should be _Lord_ Black.

A voice chuckled from the visitor's gallery, "It seems that some people have realized what Amelia meant…"

Dumbledore straightened, "Our next order of business is welcoming back the Lord Black into this party after a long leave in regards to his uncertain health."

Arcturus strode out of the visitor's gallery and walked straight to the Black seat, sitting down, taking the whispering to an all-time high.

"SILENCE!" Dumbledore roared.

Arcturus rose again, "I would like to take custody of my grandson until he is well."

*** **Hogwarts, a month later**

Harry and Hermione continued their training, Harry continued training with elemental magic, learning nuances and by the end of the month, Harry had a reasonable grasp over the basics of the art.

Sirius himself was recovering in a mental clinic in America.

Hermione was more focused on getting her spell-magic up to where Harry was, not having practiced dueling techniques like he had and not being built for fighting, her posture being a bit too stiff and not fluid enough to be a winning duelist, thought Dumbledore was working on that with her.

Unfortunately, the petrifications continued, and Dumbledore was required more and more at school and he kept his investigation going, having narrowed it down to a handful of magical creatures, citing the 'monster' in the legend of the Chamber of Secrets. Currently, he was theorizing that it might be a Basilisk and the three victims so far were just really lucky in surviving their encounters.

Dumbledore explained his theory while he and Hermione were doing a mock-duel and Arcturus and Harry were already done for the day.

You're grasping at straws now, Albus, there is no way that a goddamn Basilisk could go around this school and not kill ANYONE." Arcturus scorned Dumbledore's theory.

"But it would fit Voldemort's mo…" Nicolas mused.

Dumbledore nodded, "Out of all magical snakes, this is the only one that makes logical sense. Not to mention, the last time the chamber was opened, a girl died and it was definitely Voldemort who opened it then, so perhaps, instead of an Heir, we should be looking for a possessed student."

"But wouldn't they have a head sticking out of the back of their head, Like Professor Quirrell." Hermione asked, sending another simple spell-chain at Dumbledore.

"There are many types of possession, Granger, what we are talking about is Voldemort taking over somebody's body from inside his horcrux, not just attaching himself to any consenting individual." Arcturus explained.

Nicolas cleared his throat, "Either way, it's about time that I start teaching you battle alchemy."

Harry raised his hand, "Doesn't Alchemy basically work off the law of equivalent exchange, so isn't transfiguration more versatile?"

"Good question, the answer is that Alchemically transmuted objects cannot be reverted or broken with magic, they are entirely resilient to anyone's magic but your own. At the same time, transfiguration is a form of alchemy as well, simplified and enhanced by wizard's magic to bypass the law of equivalent exchange but lose any magical properties." Nicolas explained.

Harry nodded, and Nicolas proceeded to give a long lecture on Alchemy and how it worked, having them work in pentagrams, which helped beginners learn the basics and he had them do simple alchemy, turning a big rock into a small knife, which both Harry and Hermione managed.

"The goblins are great Alchemists, as the legends go, they sacrificed over ten kilograms of pure diamond to create the sword of Gryffindor." Nicolas said, "Alchemically created weapons are the best in the world, you would do well to learn how to use a sword and alchemically transfigure yourself a physical weapon, it is also possible to turn your weapon into a conductor for magic, though that would require a greater sacrifice. For the next couple turns, we'll be working on simple alchemy of physical objects, however, greater uses of alchemy include blood magic and alchemical wards, both of which involve sacrifice, making them the most powerful forms of magic. Incidentally, the wards protecting your aunt's house are also alchemical wards, working off the willing sacrifice of a life, perhaps one of the most powerful sources of magic ever, making the wards around that house perhaps the strongest wards created in the last hundred years."

*** **End of Chapter**


	24. Old men teach and the plot continues

**An: Note that I am not really going into a lot of detail on things that are mirrored from canon, like Quidditch. Unless I decide to make him a pro-player, Quidditch will not show up but rest assured that he's just playing the game off-screen.**

 ***** Hogwarts Library, 3 months later**

The situation had gotten worse, a handful more students and a GHOST had gotten petrified.

Students were no longer allowed to walk alone and instead walked from place to place in the castle with mirrors in their hands due to Dumbledore's belief that it was a Basilisk.

Harry and Hermione had been led to the library by Professor McGonagall and were currently under the watchful gaze of Madam Pince who had no other students in her domain, not even any Ravenclaws dared to go outside their common rooms.

"Who do you think the heir could be?" Hermione pressed Harry.

"Voldemort." Harry replied.

"But who allowed him to possess them, do you think it was Malfoy." Hermione asked excitedly.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Possession of this kind doesn't have to be willing, besides I doubt Malfoy could keep his trap shut if he was."

"Oh." Hermione seemed slightly crestfallen.

"There is no evidence to point out who it may be, our best chance to figure out who it may be is just to keep an eye out for somebody that's acting weird and then question them, however Malfoy has just been his stupid racist self." Harry said.

"But, what can we actually do…" Hermione said.

"Nothing. It isn't our job to fix this. If we have a suspicion, we question them, find the horcrux and hand it over to the Headmaster or Lord Black, both of whom are already working tirelessly to find the student." Harry said.

*** **Present**

Arcturus had taken over the role of Defence professor under Dumbledore's coaxing so that he could stay in the castle to tutor Harry and wouldn't have to floo over every day, and the Lord Black was positively disgusted at how sucky the students were.

"While your first year was meant to provide some simple knowledge and stances, this year you are to learn some more simple practical applications of spells that could help fend off a wizarding opponent for a short period of time. Thus, today, we shall be practising the couple of spells that you learnt last year, we will have some practise duels so that I can see where you are individually and then I shall show you how to stall for time in a duel with a more experienced opponent with only simple spells to back you up." Arcturus lectured.

The students turned into pairs, and Harry and Hermione paired each other, knowing that they were quite a bit further in training than their peers.

Both knew that Arcturus wanted spell-chains from them so they started out with the Sting-Trip-Petrify chain that was very simple and very quick, Harry clocked in less than a half-second for the chain while Hermione managed just under a second on the chain, both casting really fast at each other as they both put up a shield to block the other's spells as Harry quickly gained the advantage and was hit by Harry's powerful stinger, getting out-of-rhythm and getting hit with Harrys tripper and petrificus totalus.

Unfortunately, the rest of the class wasn't so good, nobody had any sort of proper stance and definitely not the advanced ones used by Harry and Hermione.

Only a few students managed to get out a few stingers, and the few who did won their duels easily as their opponents just froze up at being hit with something.

Finally, the class just settled down and watched Harry and Hermione cast furiously.

Arcturus seemed disgusted, "What did your previous teacher teach you! It's like I have to start from scratch, you're about as good as my first-years. Pair up and practise the bloody stinging hex, I was hoping to get on to the shielding spell today but apparently not."

The next few classes went like that, Arcturus was unrelenting on his classes and pulled them on a crash course through simple spells, getting them to practise them until they were passable then move on, knowing that he had a huge curriculum to get through in only a few months until the final exam.

*** **Present, unknown location**

Luna Lovegood could no longer resist his possession. Her body was now his, 24/7 and his plan to gain a corporeal body was almost in action, he would enact it this very day.

Luna Lovegood had been a dream come true for him. He had been prepared for a long year of slogging through memories and making the student's mind malleable but found that the girl was already bitter and bullied, an outcast in her own house.

He couldn't thank the Ravenclaws enough for saving him from a year of grovelling, his plans would come into action much quicker than he could ever have anticipated, almost two months before the end of the school year, when he had thought he would be able to.

Tom headed down to the chamber, and left a message in the girl's blood saying he had taken her to the chamber on the same wall where he had written his first message.

It was time for him to regain his corporeal body.

*** **Later**

"All students must return to their common rooms!" the loud voice of Professor McGonagall broke through Harry and Arcturus' furious duel, as the voice projected as far as the room of requirement.

Pausing at the announcement allowed Arcturus to smash a painful stunner into him.

Arcturus frowned disapprovingly, "You were doing okay there, but you let yourself get distracted, that could very well have been the killing curse."

Dumbledore rushed into the room, his wand in his hand.

Nicolas too stopped his duel with Hermione.

"What happened." Arcturus enquired.

Dumbledore's face was extremely grim.

"A girl has been taken into the chamber."

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Thanks for reading. BTW, my computer is okay again, it was repaired MUCH faster than expected (and much cheaper) cuz they only had to clean the underneath of the keys instead of ordering an entirely new keyboard.**


	25. The Sword of Potter

**An: Bleh**

 ***** Present**

Harry and Hermione had been rushed off by Dumbledore, Arcturus and Nicolas who had all run off to Dumbledore's office and told the kids to get back to their common room.

On the way back, Harry stiffened and cursed.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, concerned.

Harry started to run in a direction, "There's a snake travelling through the walls, I can hear it in Parseltongue."

"You know Parseltongue!" Hermione exclaimed as she sprinted after her best friend.

"Yup, there's no time to go to the Headmaster's office, we would lose the snake, we have to follow the snake and send Dumbledore a message."

Hermione nodded, the idea appealing to her Gryffindor sense of excitement.

The snake led them through the castle and finally brought them to a bathroom of all places.

The Bathroom outside of which Mrs Norris had been found.

The voice disappeared into thin air and left the two kids alone in the girl's bathroom.

Harry hastily conjured and animated a piece of paper with a note to Dumbledore, sending it flying like a paper airplane, all the way to Dumbledore's office.

Harry took a moment to admire his craftsmanship before moving on to inspect the room for possible discrepancies, finding one almost immediately.

~OPEN~ Harry hissed in Parseltongue over a sink that had a snake motif on it.

The entire basin faded back into the wall, leaving a gaping hole in the floor, leading to a slide that led down into the darkness.

Harry took a deep breath and went down the passage, closely followed by Hermione.

It was a long way down and Harry found himself enjoying the slide as it took twists and turns, it was similar to a muggle amusement ride.

Hermione, on the other hand, was terrified and shrieked the entire way down.

The two landed gracelessly at the bottom and trudged forward, lit wands in hand, ready to cast.

"In the case that it is a Basilisk, we need to have reflective sunglasses to protect ourselves from the gaze of the Basilisk." Harry commented and concentrated, conjuring tinted sunglasses.

"These should do the trick." Harry said pleased.

They put on the sunglasses and continued on in a tense silence, a tenseness that wasn't alleviated by the giant shed skin that they passed.

Finally, the two ended up in a large chamber with a large bust of Salazar Slytherin on the wall opposite them.

Almost directly in front of the statue, stood a boy in Hogwarts robes, standing over the fallen form of Luna Lovegood.

"Aah, Hello Harry Potter." The figure said pleasantly.

Harry didn't let himself relax.

"What are you doing with the girl?" Harry said dangerously.

"Oh, nothing, just stealing her very life." The boy said lightly, twirling his own wand between his fingers.

Harry slowly edged towards the two, "And who are you?" he asked cautiously.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle… and you can stop trying to sneak up on me."

Harry cursed at being found out so easily.

"So what do you have to do with Voldemort." Harry asked, his wand pointed at Tom's head.

"Ah, Voldemort is my past, present and future." Tom said muttering a spell to create his name in the air and reorganising the letters to spell out 'I am Lord Voldemort.'

Harry snorted, "An anagram. Really?"

As a response, Tom snarled and sent a volley of spells at Harry who sidestepped the entire string and send one of his one at Riddle who simply stood there smirking as Harry couldn't harm him as he was still a spirit.

"Until I fully take over the girl's magic, I'm still not fully corporeal, which means you can't hit me." Tom said triumphantly.

Harry felt a feeling of hopelessness take over as he shielded himself from another string from Riddle who could attack relentlessly since he didn't have to defend.

Hermione seemed to have frozen up a bit in horror as she looked at her best friend struggling to keep up with the spirit of a school-going memory of Voldemort.

Harry had so far managed to not get hit by Riddle but, especially with the inability to hit back, Harry was struggling to weave through the spells and keep up the shield work.

Riddle smirked, "Seems like you aren't useless, shame you'll be long-dead before you can duel me on equal footing." He said and called the Basilisk in Parseltongue.

The large green snake came through the mouth of the large bust of Slytherin.

Harry cursed and looked away before the snake could petrify him.

Harry looked around for something he could use for alchemy to transform into a sword. He needed something of high magical value.

To buy himself some time, Harry conjured a large block of granite and flung it at the Basilisk, sending it flying into the wall where it attempted to slither out from.

Unfortunately, Riddle was still casting and Harry was forced to defend himself and Hermione while looking for something magical to use for alchemy.

What did he have around him.

Hermione, definitely out of the question

The girl, also out of the question

He could see Riddle's horcrux in the form of a diary, it would need to be destroyed and it would definitely work.

A goddamn basilisk.

He had an idea.

"Cover me, Hermione!" Harry yelled.

Hermione nodded shakily and started powering a magical shield of her own to stop Riddle's curses.

"Accio Basilisk teeth!" Harry roared, putting as much magic as he could to try and summon the teeth of the beast, which may have had a magically resistant hide but not magically resistant teeth.

The entire Basilisk was pulled out of the rubble as it's teeth were violently and bloodily pulled out of it's mouth.

"Accio Horcrux!" Harry yelled again but the horcrux didn't move.

Harry cursed and ran over to the diary and picked it up where it lay, to a roar of anger from Riddle.

"Don't touch that!" Riddle yelled, "Get him Basilisk!"

The Basilisk did not listen, still thrashing about from the pain of having it's teeth summoned out, it's poison dripping from udders that had previously been connected to teeth that had been ripped out.

Harry took the chance and transfigured some rubble into two knives and flung them at the beast's eyes, and managed to hit the left eye, making the beast half blind as well.

Harry laid the horcrux down on top of the teeth of the snake, careful not to touch the venom.

Very carefully, Harry closed his eyes, thinking about his alchemy training, which he had been a natural at.

While, he wasn't a master yet, the sheer greatness of the sacrifice would give the sword he was hoping to conjure a lot of power in itself and hopefully take some of the properties of the basilisk's teeth as well as destroy the Darkness in the horcrux.

With a slow chant, Harry started the alchemy, a master could probably do it in an instant, but Harry built his concentration as he had been taught, picturing the sword and muttering his magic.

With a bright flash of light, both the basilisk teeth and the diary were gone… as well as half of the chamber. Mnay of the giant stone snakes as well as a large part of the floor were missing.

Harry cursed, he hadn't been able to anticipate the amount of sacrifice he would need, and his transference rate was probably not great but he had the sword he needed.

It was a hybrid sword between a Japanese-style katana and an Excalibur-esque design. The blade was imbued with basilisk venom from the sacrifice and had a black hilt encrusted with Basilisk ivory.

With a loud yell, the figure of Tom Riddle began to evaporate and the blonde girl who had been previously unconscious began to stir.

"Goddamn you! Harry Potter! I will rise again!" Riddle screamed before he was gone from the world.

The partially recovered and very much angered Basilisk swung around blindly trying to hit the one who had destroyed it's master but did not seem to come close to Harry.

With a deep breath, hoping to all hell that he wouldn't die, Harry ran at the Basilisk and swung upwards, sticking his sword right through the skull of the giant snake.

Just as Harry's sword was going through the snake's mouth, the entrance to the chamber burst open in a shower of rubble as Albus, Arcturus and Nicolas stood ready, wands in hand and ready to go and they stood in awe as Harry put the sword through the beast's skull.

Harry took his sword back out, looking every bit the victorious hero as he looked back to see Hermione and the blond staring in awe and his three teachers standing behind in disbelief.

Nicolas was the first to recover and started a slow clap.

"Wonderfully done, Harry, did you transmute that?!" he said, once more shocked by the brilliant weapon in Harry's hand.

"Yes, from the teeth of the basilisk and Riddle's horcrux"

"As well as half the chamber." Arcturus noted.

Harry nodded sheepishly.

"Did you say that you transmuted the horcrux?" Dumbledore said.

"Yes, it should push some of the Darkness back into the void AND in exchange, it gave me the sword."

"Good thinking, Harry." Nicolas smiled before holding out a hand, "Can I?"

"Sure, the blade is imbued with Basilisk venom though." Harry warned and handed the sword to Nicolas.

"Hmm, that was probably your miscalculation, you did not sacrifice all the venom, since you kept some of it in your sword, thus the stone of the chamber was used as a substitute, you're lucky that Slytherin decided to encrust his snake sculptures with precious stones." Nicolas commented before taking a knife out of his pocked and making a thin cut on his palm, dripping five drops onto the sword before he waved his wand and the blood disappeared, instead leaving three words engraved in the sword.

 _Harry James Potter_.

Harry smiled gratefully as Nicolas handed the sword back and sealed the cut on his hand.

"There, this sword is almost on par with that of Gryffindor's." Nicolas praised.

Harry raised an eyebrow, surprised.

Nicolas smiled, "Maybe you underestimated the worth of the Basilisk fangs, if it were in diamonds, the fangs of such a large beast would definitely be worth more than 15 kilos of diamond, not to mention the horcrux and the venom and even the heavy precious stones in the chamber… in terms of sacrifice, I would estimate that yours was at least three times greater than the goblin's, when they were crafting the sword, but they were far more professional in the crafting, thus yours is only about as good as that of the goblin's." he explained.

Harry nodded, "So I had three times as much of a sacrifice but approximately a third of the efficiency."

Nicolas nodded, proud of his student.

"It's about time we went back up, Cornelius is trying to shut down the school and arrest Hagrid." Dumbledore said gravely.

They trudged back to the slide and Harry was surprised to see steps transfigured into the steps, something he was in too much of a hurry to have thought of earlier, not that he regretted his slide down to the chamber.

Harry and co made their way up the stairs, it was a longer way than Harry had initially anticipated during his slide down.

By the time they made it up at a brisk walk, they were all huffing and puffing.

The three old men, Harry, Hermione and the strangely silent blonde went to Dumbledore's office.

Hermione attempted to make conversation with the silent Ravenclaw.

"Hi. My name is Hermione."

The blonde smiled faintly, "I can see the nargles gathered around your head…"

Hermione frowned while Harry grinned.

"There aren't any such things as nargles, Miss…"

"Luna." The blond supplied dreamily.

"Well Luna, nargles do not exist."

"Yes they do Hermione Granger, they're blinding your vision."

Hermione opened her mouth to protest but Harry nudged her and let Luna continue.

"Nargles do exist, you just can't see them." Luna said.

"But what proof is there of their existence?" Hermione burst out.

"What proof of magic is there to muggles?" Luna replied.

"But we're NOT muggles." Hermione replied.

Luna shrugged, "Doesn't mean that you can't be blinded to the existence of something."

*** **End of Chapter**

 **200 FAVOURITES! I was planning on writing a 200-word chapter for 200 favourites but decided not to cuz that probably wouldn't have been entertaining, so I decided to make 2000 words instead. SO approximately 10 words are dedicated to each of you that fav-ed.**


	26. The Triwizard tournament is coming

*** **Le Present**

Harry followed the Old men up to Dumbledore's office, listening bemusedly to Hermione's obvious irritation with the little dreamy blonde.

Dumbledore looked at Harry gravely, "You have done the school a great service. The LEAST that I can do is give you an award for special services to the school."

Harry inclined his head, accepting the award.

Dumbledore smiled mischievously, "Along with 200 points to Gryffindor… apiece."

Harry and Hermione grinned at each other.

"Traditionally, the sword is always kept by it's alchemist, so you can keep the Sword of Potter and practise with it, you'll have to get proficient with using it and your wand." Dumbledore smiled, "We'll be practising that for the last few months of this year… On the other hand, there is an event coming up next year that we feel you should know of. We're bringing back the Triwizard Tournament…"

Harry hadn't heard of it before but Hermione gasped in excitement.

"The Triwizard Tournament! Are all the schools on board?" Hermione asked.

Dumbledore nodded, "Beauxbatons had asked for an extra year to decide but Nicolas convinced some of his old acquaintances to agree to the tournament on my request…" Dumbledore trailed off, seeming apprehensive about what he was going to say next.

Arcturus continued, "We wanted you two to enter."

" _Arcturus_ wanted you two to enter."

"It'll be a good test of their skills." The Lord Black protested.

"It's a contest with 7th years in it!" Dumbledore shot back, giving the impression that it was an ongoing debate between the two.

"So? You know that Potter is better than your half-assed 7th years, even that Wood boy isn't at Potter's level, and Granger would almost beat him as well. " Arcturus replied.

"But why force them to compete?"

"We're not making them compete, we're just allowing them to enter, the Goblet will choose whoever the best candidate is, if it's one of the goddamn 7th years then the 7th year will perform, if it's Potter, Potter will perform."

"Professors, it's fine, Hermione and I will enter, though I personally think it's unlikely that we will be chosen over the 7th years." Harry said sceptically.

Dumbledore sighed and nodded, "Very well, though you must make sure to be very prepared."

*** **Later**

The year was coming to a close, and Arcturus was being more brutal than ever on Harry, because of his possible choosing for the Triwizard tournament.

"There will not only be the traditional competition which will be hard enough, but there will be a duelling and a flying tournament."

Arcturus looked at Harry, "It is expected that the regular participant will take part in the next two competitions too but they will be chosen separately if, for example, the champion is not good at flying."

Harry nodded, "But I am pretty decent at flying too."

"True, which is why we're focussing on your duelling skills. Here let's practise."

Arcturus started off the duel with a lazy spell-chain that Harry batted away without any effort.

"Come on Black, that the best you got?" Harry taunted, despite knowing it would only seal his fate faster.

"No, but you haven't proven yourself worthy of my skill." Arcturus responded lazily.

Harry forced himself not to take offence and instead responded with several unpredictable spell-chains that fizzed out against Arcturus' shield.

Harry sent a shield-piercer at the basic shield, following it up with a quick spell-chain that would hopefully pass through before Arcturus could raise another shield.

Unfortunately for Harry, Arcturus simply moved out of the way before conjuring a serpent of water quickly to buy him some more time.

Harry wrenched control of the serpent and dispelled it, throwing the water at Arcturus' feet and attempting to freeze it, only to be thwarted by a long stream of fire released by Arcturus, which created smoke, that Arcturus threw at Harry's eyes.

Harry sliced forward with his sword to cut through the smoke and give himself enough vision to strike back quickly at Arcturus, knowing that his only chance of victory was to catch Arcturus off guard.

Arcturus deflected the spells off a hastily conjured shield, distracted for the moment, by Harry's spellfire, as Harry created a huge wall of fire which was turned to smoke automatically by Arcturus and sent back at Harry.

Thankfully, Harry was ready for this move, which Arcturus seemed to make every time with a fire or water attack, and used air manipulation to throw the entire thing at Arcturus, winning him precious seconds, in which he didn't attack but continued to draw on the floor, quickly moving around Arcturus, and drawing simple symbols.

The smoke cleared in a few short seconds to reveal Arcturus surrounded by a pink glowing shield that went around all sides of him.

Arcturus dispelled the shield and started throwing more spells at Harry but Harry only grinned and stepped back, throwing spells back immediately.

Arcturus, shielded against the spells even as he attempted to move out of the way… only to hit against a runic enclosure spell.

Harry smiled victoriously and leapt at the trapped Black with his sword, going to touch his neck with the face of the sword.

Arcturus thought fast and moved his wand quickly to dispel the runic binding just in time to push Harry away with a very last minute gust of air that overpowered the boy and blew him into the wall, effectively ending the duel.

Arcturus smiled and clapped.

"Smart one there boy, almost got me too."

Harry got up grumbling, "I shoulda got you."

The Black Lord nodded, "That's right, I'm old and out of my prime, you NEED to be able to beat me, though you've still got a long way to go."

*** **Examtime**

Both Harry and Hermione did exceedingly well in their second year exams, passing all the practicals with flying colours, not even having to try for defence, and in the blink of an eye, it was time to leave.

"Harry, you'll be coming with me to Black Manor where Sirius is." Arcturus said.

Harry nodded and the Lord apparated them straight to the doorstep, where Harry would talk with his Godfather properly for the first time.

"Hello Harry."

*** **End of Chapter**


	27. Summer with Siri: Quidditch

**An: Summer with Sirius part 1.**

*** **Black Manor**

"Hello Harry."

Harry looked up to see his nervous looking godfather.

Sirius Black had only partially regained his roguish handsome look. He still retained it, but the years in Azkaban had seriously taken a toll on him. He was no longer quite the man who Harry had seen in Hagrid's album.

"Hello Sirius." Harry nodded to the ex-convict.

"I… uh… I see you've met grandfather." Sirius finished lamely.

Harry nodded and smiled.

"Yes, Lord Black teaches at Hogwarts and tutors me personally along with my friend Hermione."

Sirius grinned, "Well it's no time to be studying now, let's get you on a broom!" Sirius exclaimed loudly.

Harry smiled, "I play for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team."

Sirius grinned widely, "Ah! Chaser?"

"Seeker." Harry corrected.

Sirius looked him up and down, "You have the build for it." He admitted and then grinned proudly, "Only your second year and already in the team! That's even quicker than your father, he got on in his third year."

Harry smirked slightly.

"I got onto the team in my first year."

Sirius' jaw dropped, "But you're the youngest in like a hundred years! Sweet merlin, we have to get you on an amateur team."

Harry looked slightly puzzled, "Amateur team?"

"You didn't think that Hogwarts is all the Quidditch that under 18s play, did you? There's lots of amateur leagues, In Britain there's the British Amateur League, which has 8 clubs. The top two get to compete in the European Amateur League." Sirius explained.

Harry looked excited, "Oh, what's the minimum age, and when are the try-outs."

"Minimum age is 12, you just about make the cut, though players don't usually get on until they're 14 or 15. However, the try-outs for different teams are at different times but most teams usually do their pickings in the first week or two of summer to try and pull in the new talent, which is mostly from a few of the smaller schools that have better sports programs than Hogwarts, though a couple players from good 'ol Hoggy usually get in too."

Harry nodded, "Do you think you could get me a list of the teams that have try-outs?"

"You betcha kiddo!" Sirius grinned.

Harry found Sirius to be a fun-loving person, who brought out the enthusiastic part of him.

Sirius in turn found Harry to be almost the model godson… almost.

"You don't prank enough!" Sirius exclaimed after listening to Harry talk about his life.

*** **Next day, Black Manor**

Arcturus had him wake up at the normal time and Harry did his physical exercises while admiring the Black estate then moved on to battling Arcturus.

Harry did possibly better than he ever had before, physically pushing Arcturus on the back foot for a short period of time with some furious spell-casting with a shield-piercer following up, that forced Arcturus to generate a huge amount of elemental magic to pull himself out of the tight situation and gave Harry time to push him again with his sword as well.

Arcturus ended it with a huge wave of water that was simply too powerful for Harry to dispel and washed him against the wall where he slumped, exhausted while Arcturus merely looked like he'd barely broken a sweat.

As Harry got up slowly, panting hard, he saw his Godfather with his jaw on the floor.

"Wow!" Sirius said awed.

"Good Morning Sirius!" Harry said cheerfully as he chugged a pepper-up.

"Hey Prongslet." Sirius responded, still slightly awed by his godson's performance in the duel.

"Did you get the try-out times?" Harry asked conversationally.

"Ah, yes." Sirius responded, taking out a few papers from his pockets, it seemed that he had got a full information booklet for the British Amateur League.

Harry read through the thing. It seemed that the teams were just subsidies of the British Major League teams and the first three teams to have try-outs were the Caerphilly Catapults, the Chudley Cannons and the Pride of Portree.

"I'll take you for the try-outs!" Sirius proclaimed.

*** **Caerphilly Catapults home ground**

"Hello, prospectives! I am the assistant team manager for the Catapults, and I'm in-charge of our junior team entirely. Since there's so many of you, we'll divide you into positions and have you perform individually against our current junior first picks." A tall broad man, who Harry knew to be Assistant Team Manager Cromwell said, smiling kindly at the nervous children standing in front of him, aging from 13 to 17.

Harry followed the small line of people trying out for seeker and met the Catapults' junior seeker, something Harris, Harry vaguely remembered.

"Heyo guys, last year, I was the opening seeker, I've dropped out of Quidditch for my NEWTs but 'ol Cromwell convinced me to hold tryouts for you kiddos, we'll be picking three seekers, opener, sub and a third in case of injury, who will be on call in case of emergencies but not officially training with the club." He announced, then held up a snitch, "Whoever catches this first, gets ten points on the board."

Harry kicked off into the air, he had 13 competitors, including the likes of Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang from Hogwarts, who Harry remembered as the seekers for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

Both were good but not as good as Harry.

Harry whizzed around the field, methodically searching for the snitch while keeping an eye on the other players.

Finally spotting a glint of gold, Harry dropped into a ridiculously fast nose-dive and plucked the snitch out of the air, within 15 seconds of finding the elusive golden ball.

The exercise was repeated four more times, out of which Harry caught the snitch twice more, with Diggory and a guy called something Thomson picking up one each, leaving Harry leading the points with 30 while the other two had 10 each.

"For the next activity, you will each go through a course individually while 50 bludgers are hit at you, the number of bludgers that you dodge is the number you get, you can get up to 50 points on this.

In this activity, several people were knocked out by not being able to dodge and getting hit in the head almost immediately, leaving about 5 people contesting.

Harry himself managed a respectable 43, losing out to Thomson who snagged 45 while Diggory lagged behind the two at 29 but Chang caught up a bit by dodging 41 times.

"Very Well, the last activity involves speed racing, whoever makes it through the obstacle course first gets 50 points, second gets 40, third gets 30 and so on."]

Harry excelled again, loving the opportunity to speed fast and do stunts, rolling over to avoid obstacles and taking the dives dangerously close to the ground, coming in first, beating out Diggory by about 7 seconds.

Finally, the players were left to freshen up while the picks were decided.

Finally Cromwell came out and announced the picks, since most of the main players had been retained from the previous year, only two people were selected for most posts except seeker.

"For first seeker, we pick Harry James Potter." Cromwell announced smiling.

"For second seeker pick, we take Cedric Diggory, and for emergency seeker, we pick Donald Thomson."

*** End of Chapter.


	28. Summer with Siri: Duelling

**An: I wasn't really feeling writing Quidditch right now, and after a couple failed attempts at writing this chapter, I decided to gloss over Quidditch and just take a different approach to get this summer over and done with so I can get them back to good ol hoggy.**

 ***** A month later, Black Manor**

Harry had enjoyed his time with his godfather and trainer quite a bit. Arcturus had taken to roping his grandson as well as his great grand-nephew into training and had taken great pride in Harry, who could almost duel the ex-auror to a standstill.

Harry enjoyed his duels with Sirius to compare his skills with that of a wartime auror, sadly he found himself somewhat lacking as Sirius seemed to be thinking far faster though Harry had more options to put down the auror due to his alchemy, runes and elemental magic.

Sirius struck hard and fast with the spells that he did know, going into spell-chains manufactured on the spot to both counter and return Harry's spells. While Sirius did not know elemental magic, he could counter water and fire easily enough by using creative techniques like conjuring blocks of marble or performing reversing spells or deflections, that were usually enough to destroy Harry's budding elemental magic, which Harry had hoping would be a trump card against his godfather.

Unfortunately for Sirius, alchemy could not be affected by normal magic, which meant that when Harry alchemically turned the ground underneath him into quicksand, Sirius had to levitate himself out and waste precious seconds in which Harry sent another barrage of spells as him, hoping to clip him with one, which Sirius was thankfully able to block and return.

All in all, Harry's advanced magic gave him the edge, but the sheer experience and familiarity that the strong auror had eventually won out against Harry, having more endurance than the teen boy to keep going strong even after Harry had begun to falter and take advantage of Harry's flaws that emerged when he didn't quite have the magic or energy to keep going with the duel.

Arcturus felt it was good training for Harry, because he himself defeated Harry long before Harry started to get tired and thus never really tested his endurance like Sirius did, and Arcturus thought that holding back was counter-productive while learning so never tried to not fight at his best so that Harry could feel some modicum of success when there was none, though he would admit that the young Potter had come a long way from where he used to be and lasting almost half an hour against an experienced auror was quite a feat of achievement for a 13-year-old… the duelling competition would have another thing coming to it.

Harry had competed in the amateur season of the Quidditch British cup, and found many other good seekers, losing almost as often as winning and persevering with every match, in the way that got him through his training with Arcturus and Dumbledore.

The Catapults had gotten to the semis then lost out despite Harry catching the snitch, to Puddlemore, who went on to win the season.

Additionally, Harry had seen ads for the under-15 world-wide duelling competition and had conned his godfather into entering him, who had agreed only after duelling Harry for the first time.

Needless to say, Harry was one of the best duellers there, he got through the selection phase without breaking a sweat, becoming the one to represent England quite easily, only having a bit of difficulty to beat his own team member.

He was excited to play the USA and some of the Asian countries, which were said to have fierce training programs for their duellers as well, unlike most European countries, save maybe Bulgaria.

In the first round, Harry went flawless while almost all of his teammates lost out a few times, being knocked out of play for the second round, leaving only Harry and a soon-to-be sixth-year at Hogwarts who had only a few weeks before his birthday, Cedric Diggory who was a decent dueller as well, probably the best from the British Team if not for Harry.

In the second round, Harry had a few interesting matches, where he was forced to show his elemental magic to take the win.

Harry was playing a member of the Brazilian team, the only one to make it to the second round.

The girl was lithe and dangerous, ready to strike at any moment, she moved quickly and her spell-chains were simple but effective, a good strategy for the under-15s Harry thought, but not good enough to take him out.

Harry blocked her chain with a flick of his wrist before returning fire, increasing the intensity of the duel slowly as his opponent seemed to strain more and more, her movements becoming choppy and her defences becoming weaker but just as Harry was about to finish the duel with a simple stunner, the Brazilian struck hard, she sent a huge spell-chain at Harry before jumping closer, and sending conjured knives flying at Harry in a manoeuvre that would have taken out almost anybody else but Harry was quick enough to counter, with a quick instinctual flick of his hand, an ice-shield sprung up in front of him, taking the daggers and the spells.

Harry heard gasps at the elemental magic and cursed himself for showing his hand so early.

Harry melted the ice and sent the water hurtling at his unprepared opponent, knocking her out of the arena and winning the game in a split-second.

After that, his next match consisted of an opponent that simply threw up a block of marble every time Harry moved, for fear of an elemental attack.

Harry rolled his eyes, like he would even need that.

Harry depulso-d the marble back at the boy, slamming it into him like a truck and winning the game without breaking a sweat.

Harry's next few opponents were pretty easy too and he went through the second round with no faults and the other British competitor, Diggory made it through the second round with only a single loss, letting him continue to the next round.

Harry and Cedric struck up something of a friendship, being stuck in the same hotel suite along with the failed candidates, all of whom Harry and Cedric found to be annoying showoffs with no skill.

They were both duellists and Quidditch players, and Harry personally thought that he would be a good triwizard champion, Harry expected that he would actually be a competitor for the spot.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: More duelling! Such fun to write.**


	29. Duelling: Round 3

**An: I just noticed that this story has passed 400 follows AND 100 reviews! Thanks a lot!**

 **An2: Also, in terms of mary sue-ness, I don't want Harry to be over-powered, but I do want him to take on Voldemort on his own merit as opposed to luck, so Harry will have to be fairly strong. I don't want to grant him ultimate strength like I've seen in some fanfics where he can beat Dumbeldore and Voldemort with a flick of his hand, but he'll have to be powerful to take Voldemort on equal footing in about 5 years, so I'm trying to keep him on track for that.**

 **An3: I want to make this clear because it has been asked many times, maybe I didn't make it clear enough, the pensieve doesn't belong to Dumbledore, it is the HEADMASTER's pensieve, meaning that it belongs to whoever the current headmaster of Hogwarts is.**

 ***** Third round, duelling tournament**

Harry noticed the very small amount of Europeans in the room, there was a French witch called Fleur Delacour, two Bulgarians, Harry and Cedric and one Swedish guy, who Harry thought was lucky to even be there.

Comparatively, the Chinese and Indians both had all 5 of their contestants making the two countries together have more representation than the entirety of Europe. A lot of Asian countries also had 2 or 3 of their competitors still in and the US had 4 in.

All in all, Harry concluded, he was probably the last chance for Europe.

His first match in the third round was against Delacour, who Harry noted was a half-veela, so water would be useful and fire harmless against the witch.

Harry started out with a couple spell-chains and was put on the back foot early on by the aggressive charm work that the veela was pushing at him, Harry had to block and wasn't able to get an attack in.

Harry decided to try and overcome the girl magically, by letting her use up her magic on the long and arduous attack but that turned out to be a fail as the girl seemed to have huge magical reserves, probably larger than Harry's were at the moment.

Harry burst out with a large burst of elemental magic, throwing a jet of water right at the veela, who screamed in terror and threw an equally large burst of veela fire right at the water, creating dark smoke, which Harry quickly manipulated to be thrown at Fleur as Arcturus had taught him, using the distraction to throw a wide variety of spells at the girl, not taking any chances.

Finally, when the smoke was dispelled, they found Fleur unconscious and tied up.

Harry sighed a sigh of relief, the first match of the third round was out of the way.

His second and third match were fairly easy, beating out the Swedish competitor and the last competitor from South Africa.

His fourth match pitted him against one of the favourites for the tournament and one of Japan's last two competitors.

The girl was slim and serious, dressed in the muggle-way, in a fashion similar to Harry's.

Harry had observed her and knew that she had been playing with her previous opponents, so he did not know all of her tricks, thankfully that went the other way too and Harry knew and few useful tricks as well.

Harry and his opponent engaged in a quick battle of magic both raising the bar with every spell they cast until they were both way above the u-15 level that they were fighting at, Harry found them equally placed in terms of magical knowledge, at least in terms of conventional hexes, jinxes and combat magic.

Then the girl took the battle to the next level by closing in on Harry slowly, something that many did not notice but Harry noticed immediately, not backing away from the challenge but increasing the speed of his attacks to try and push the girl back.

Unfortunately, his opponent, slashed away all of Harry's spells and leapt at him, a short knife shining in her hand.

Harry instinctively knew it was alchemically transmuted, the mirthful glint in her eye said it all.

So, instead of trying to transfigure the weapon like most would, Harry unsheathed his own sword which was hidden underneath his cloak and parried the knife hit, taking advantage of the opening to slam a few spells into the girl, sending her reeling backwards, with most likely a broken rib-cage, but the girl pressed her wand to her chest and growled a few words in Japanese before leaping again, wand in one hand, knife in the other, Harry gripped his wand and sword in a similar fashion, parrying and shooting spells simultaneously, even going in for a swipe now and again.

Harry finally found and opening and sent a block of air hurtling at the girl, knocking her out against the wall.

"And the victor is Harry Potter!" screamed the commentator as Harry panted heavily, looking at all of the little hits and cuts that the girl had gotten in.

Harry walked back to the British box, where Cedric was waiting for him, completely awed by his performance.

"You were holding back all this time!" Cedric marvelled, "And you effortlessly beat all of us in training without even breaking out half of your skills."

Harry smiled abashedly, "Well, all of you were pretty amateurish, though you are pretty formidable yourself, Cedric."

Cedric smiled ruefully, "Though not quite as formidable as you, eh Harry."

Adrian Pucey, one of Britain's other candidates snorted, "The bastard obviously cheated, there's no way he's THAT strong."

Harry gave Pucey a dirty look , "I'll take you on any time, Pucey."

"Wanna go, Potter?" Pucey asked aggressively.

Harry was about to snort and refuse but Cedric got in his way.

"Harry doesn't even need to wipe his hands with the likes of you." The brave hufflepuff snapped at Pucey before turning around and heading in the direction of his room.

Pucey growled in anger and shot a yellow spell at Cedric's back.

"Cedric watch out!" Harry exclaimed and put up a quick shield which thankfully managed to stop whatever spell it was that Pucey had shot.

Cedric spun around just in time to see Harry block the spell.

"Out of the way Harry, this just got personal." Cedric growled and looked at Pucey with disdain, "If you want to fight me, at least be a man and fight me head on."

In response, Pucey sent back a spell-chain at Cedric, which the Hufflepuff laughed at.

"Is that really the best you can do?" Cedric spat at Pucey before completely destroying his opponent with a complex spell-chain that Pucey was completely unable to counter.

"I've wanted to do that for so long!" Cedric looked almost giddy.

Harry smiled, "Yea, he rubbed me the wrong way too,"

*** **End of Chapter.**


	30. The Finals

**An: AND… Round 4! Woohoo! I'm stuck on an airplane and too cheap to pay a dollar for the complimentary wifi and I don't have enough battery to play a video game so… I'm writing this.**

 **An2: I really dug myself into a hole by making Harry's competitor in the last chapter Japanese cuz I really don't know very many Japanese names at all… I DID steal the name from Death Note, just in case you've read that and you're wondering. :-P**

 **An3: I don't want Harry to be overpowered but to put things in context, Harry needs to be able to stand up to Voldemort by his sixth to seventh year, and Sirius isn't even 1/50** **th** **as good as Voldy so Harry needs to improve very quickly. Also, Harry had the advantage of surprise over Sirius who didn't know any elemental magic at all, while Voldemort will and can counter it effectively.**

 **Btw, Parseltongue is written like ~this~**

 ***** Le Present**

Both Harry and Cedric had gotten into the fourth round, Harry was undefeated while Cedric's 79%-win rate just about got him through to the fourth round out of the 5 round tournament.

Harry started the fourth round which had only 8 contestants remaining.

Harry had observed his competition carefully.

Cedric was a threat but limited in his magical avenues and would be simple enough for Harry to overpower despite having a good head on his shoulders and relatively strong magic.

Fleur Delacour was a veela with good technique but would ultimately not prove to be much of a challenge.

Misa, the Japanese witch had displayed the most skill outside of Harry himself, and so far was seeming to be the biggest challenge for Harry, because she knew a variety of spells as large as his along with decent battle transfiguration and alchemy.

There were one Chinese Wizard who had a relatively small magical core but played really fast to overwhelm his opponents.

Surprisingly, Bulgaria's foot in the duelling door was in fact, the Quidditch sensation Victor Krum who would become the youngest player to ever play a world cup next year. Krum was powerful and knew several Bulgarian spells and questionably grey magic that had so far given him the edge against his opponents but his reaction time was by far the slowest among the remaining duellists which would put him at a severe disadvantage against most of the remaining players.

There was one remaining champion from India, Ram or something like that who was skilled with Parselmagic, magic used in Parseltongue, a skill indigenous to India, though Harry would have an advantage of knowing what Parselmagic was being used, being a Parselmouth himself.

Then there was the Wizard from the US who had stayed in too.

The first match pitched Victor Krum against the American wizard which Krum narrowly managed to pull off, his strong magic being enough to barrel straight through his opponent's shields.

Ram was put up against the French girl, Fleur Delacour who was completely out of her depth in the battle and at a complete disadvantage, being unable to speak Parseltongue, she lost within 30 seconds of the battle beginning, in a pretty embarrassingly easy duel.

Cedric was put up against Misa, a battle in which he sadly had no hope but put up a valiant effort, fighting hard against the Japanese girl, going hard at it and putting her on the back foot for the first minute before she pushed back and completely annihilated Cedric.

Harry felt slightly bad for his countryman but focussed on his battle against the Chinese wizard, defending himself expertly and pulling off a fairly textbook victory, by blocking his opponent's spell, and shooting a quick expelliarmus-stupefy chaim.

The next round was the semi-finals, narrowed down to the last 4, Misa, Ram, Krum and Harry.

Harry's first game was against Krum, another fairly easy win, though Harry had to overpower his spells to break through Krum's shield.

Then he sat down to watch the game between Misa and Ram.

"This ought to be interesting." Harry commented to Cedric who was sitting beside him in the audience.

Ram began the game, playing it safe and defending Misa's attacks, sending back his own spells to keep the pressure up but not going all-in on a push.

Misa raised the bar on the spells, but Ram kept pushing her back, further and further, switching to Parselmagic spells and completely owning her in the battle.

Only her extreme skill, kept her duelling the match though it was obviously one which she was losing.

In desperation, Misa flung herself to the ground and muttered some stuff, her wand glowing bright.

Suddenly, a huge hole appeared under Ram, making him stumble and fall into the pit, while Misa now had a large spear in her hand, that she ran at the disoriented Indian with.

Thankfully for Ram, he immediately put up a Parselmagic ward while he regained his senses, pushing Misa away, and giving Ram the opening to stun her.

Harry clapped along with the rest of the crowd, he would be facing Ram, who seemed to be dangerous enough to beat Misa with relative ease.

Harry took his stance against the Indian boy and immediately started casting, to which Ram started casting in Parselmagic and Harry could hear what he was saying.

While latin was a fairly powerful root for magic, Parseltongue was practically laced with magic making it far stronger than the regular latin spells that one would use.

He was hissing words, ~Cut~, ~Sleep~ and ~Burn~ seemed to be his favourite ones, and knowing his spells gave him an advantage of knowing exactly what Ram was casting.

Despite being relatively evenly matched, it really seemed like Ram was getting the better of Harry, his Parselmagic spells giving Harry quite a bit of trouble with their powerful nature.

Harry decided to finally pull all of the stops and retaliated with a burst of fire that Ram put out easily with a simple ~Water~ that produced almost elemental levels of water and created a great bunch of smoke but before Harry could throw that at Ram, Ram announced, ~Dissipate~ and the smoke dissipated, leaving Harry somewhat compromised.

Harry defended himself desperately as Ram tried to take advantage of his surprise and went all in with the push, throwing spell after spell, and Harry was pushed back further.

Harry created a large shield of ice that would hold a couple seconds but was surprised to hear a crack from behind him and a stunner approaching quick.

Harry sliced through the spell and barely had time to register that the boy could apparate before being pushed back against his own ice wall.

Ram got closer and closer to Harry, his spells becoming harder, faster and quicker.

Harry smiled viciously, this gave him just the opportunity he needed, his sword was out of its sheath in the blink of an eye and Ram had no way to block the long slice across his chest.

Ram stepped back and gurgled slightly as a trickle of blood slipped from his lip and Harry struck him hard with a stunner that pushed him back several paces, his eyes rolling up into his head as he collapsed and the medics rushed in to magick away the wound.

Unfortunately, their dittany wasn't working as quickly as expected, the healers looked to Harry, "What did you do?"

"My sword is alchemically created, it's magic resistant." Harry explained.

The medics cursed, They revived Ram, "Well, your chest will take a few weeks to heal but we should be able to prevent any scarring."

The Indian competitor smiled ruefully, "Good game, though I really thought I had it in the bag."

Harry grinned too, "Friends?" he held out his hand.

"Friends." Ram repeated and shook Harry's hand as they exchanged owl addresses.

"Well, it's time for the trophy ceremony." One of the medics said and Harry moved in the direction that he was supposed to.

"In first place… Britain's saviour… Harry James Potter!"

Harry took his golden trophy.

"In second place…Asian u-18 champion, Ramesh Mahadevan!"

Ram went up and took his own silver medal.

"In third place… from the world-acknowledged best-duelling-school Japan School of Magic, Misa Amane!"

Misa went up and took her award as well.

Harry smiled joyfully, he had three new friends AND he had won the duelling tournament.

It had been a good summer.

*** **End of Chapter.**


	31. Back to good old Hoggy

***** Hogwarts Express**

The summer ended soon after Harry's victory which was very publicized in the British media as Harry was the first British competitor to win the trophy since Filius Flitwick had competed back in the 60s.

Harry credited Arcturus and Dumbledore as his trainers, saying that they cultivated his 'passion for duelling', neglecting to mention Nicolas Flamel's contribution to his studies.

It was time to go back to Hogwarts.

Harry spent most of the time on the train catching up with Hermione and introducing Cedric, who had decided to sit with them after his turn at patrolling which happened in the middle of the ride.

"This way, I get to sit with both groups of my friends." Cedric explained.

It was a generally quicker ride than usual, and both Harry and Hermione were looking forward to getting back to good ol' Hoggy.

*** **Later, at Hogwarts**

"It is my sad duty to inform you that Quidditch will not be taking place this year. Instead, we will be holding a far more important event, the Triwizard Tournament…"

Dumbledore waited for the gasping and murmuring to die down.

"…there is no official age limit on the entry, but if you are younger than fifth year, I would not advise you to enter." Dumbledore looked somewhat severely at Harry and Hermione, giving them a warning look.

"…Not to mention that the choice will be made by an ancient magical artefact that measures worthiness using an algorithm that takes into account magical power, skill and even balances out for age, so if you are younger, the artefact, known as the goblet of fire will be far less likely to pick you unless you are substantially more worthy than the other contestants. The tasks have been made far safer with next to no chance of death, unless something goes horribly wrong. In addition to the points earned in the first two tasks, there will also be a three-person duelling tournament, as well as a Quidditch, as well as a chess tournament, that will add 50 points each to the winner as much as a flawless score on a task. These two will be chosen by the school's chosen coach, for Hogwarts, Filius Flitwick, seven-time winner of the international duelling tournament will be coaching the duelling team and Rolanda Hooch, former England player and Wasps captain will be coaching the Quidditch team."

There was thunderous noise and whooping from the younger students who were afraid Dumbledore would prevent them from entering.

"We will be hosting the Beauxbatons Ecole de magie as well as the Durmstang Institute of magic, both schools will be arriving next week, and please do remember that the first and foremost point of this tournament is to promote friendship between our various countries. We have invited them earlier than usual, so that you may bond with them before the tournament. The trials for the duelling team and the Quidditch team will be held tomorrow and day after respectively, the trials for the chess team will be held the day after that, if you want to sign up, please talk to Professor Flitwick or Professor Hooch as would apply. The goblet of fire will be unveiled the day our visitors arrive, there will be wards around it that will prevent the entry of the name of someone's name by another person. Hopefully this will be sufficient defence, and I implore any student thinking to enter their name to reconsider."

*** **Next day**

Harry had signed up for the tryouts for both the duelling competition as well as the Quidditch team.

Flitwick had them lined up and called them forward one by one to judge their ability, he went easy on them for a while before suddenly going all out to see their defence, then stopping the duel once his enemy was beaten. Hermione didn't want to participate in the duelling tournament despite Harry's protests.

Cedric did the best against Flitwick, making Flitwick have to go on the defensive for almost twenty seconds before Flitwick recovered from the shock and completely owned Cedric.

Harry went up slightly nervous, from the skill already displayed, it was unlikely he would even come close to winning, but if he went really hard, he could make a good impression on his Professor.

Harry started out with spell-chains, getting faster as he went, causing Flitwick to have to respond, with defensive spells and even some counters.

Harry immediately went the elemental route to coax his opponent into attacking and as he thought, Flitwick fought back, destroying his fire-stream with a flick of his wrist which caused a jet of water, which went on towards Harry.

Harry sliced right through the stream, with a cutting curse, that Flitwick absorbed on a shield before having to pour extra power into the shield as Harry sent spell after spell, trying to overload the shield.

Flitwick sent a burst of energy, blinding Harry and incinerating his spells.

In the single second that Harry was blinded, Flitwick sprung right at Harry, closing the distance.

Anticipating the move, Harry drew the sword of Potter and swung ahead of himself pre-emptively, forcing Flitwick to sway backwards and not be able to cast a spell, while Harry sent a wave of air to blast Flitwick back.

Flitwick was flung backwards but the master dueller stopped himself in mid-air and sent a fearsome bird of fire at Harry.

Harry conjured a Basilisk of water, but it wasn't nearly big enough to fight the raven.

The fire stopped just in front of Harry and a quick stunning spell almost caught him but Harry's reflex batted the spell away.

"I concede." Harry said respectfully, knowing that if Flitwick wasn't afraid to burn his stat student, he would have lost and lost painfully.

"The three who will play for Hogwarts are Cedric Diggory, Harry Potter and Cho Chang, the reserves are Oliver Wood, Fred Weasley and George Weasley." Flitwick announced, "All of you will show up immediately after class on Mondays and Fridays."

"Can you talk to Professor Black and Headmaster Dumbledore about inserting this into my timetable." Harry questioned.

Flitwick looked like wanted to question Harry a bit but held back.

"Yes, Mr Potter, I will, but know that the Headmaster doesn't run your life." Flitwick warned.

*** End of Chapter.


	32. Hogwarts Quidditch team & schools arrive

**An: 300 favourites and 500 follows=extra-long chapter for you guys. Really though, thanks a lot for all of the supportive reviews and especially the constructive ones. I've written close to 100,000 words on this site (overall) and I've been especially lucky with getting fewer flames than I thought possible.**

 ***** Quidditch tryouts**

Hooch surveyed the huge turnout for the Quidditch team trials with an analytical eye.

"All of you who aren't on your House team get out of here. Those of you who haven't had the chance, stay here, team players, get warmed up while I survey the 'new talent'." Hooch made air quotes.

Harry left with most of the other faces he recognized, he, Cedric and Cho started practising catches on their brooms with a few enchanted golf balls that Harry had brought over from the muggle world.

They ignored Draco Malfoy, who was looking down at the group from where he was practising his own dives and turns.

Meanwhile Hooch made the younger ones (around his own age, Harry corrected) to do a few laps of the field, the ones who couldn't were sent off immediately.

"What position do you want to play." Hooch barked and the students separated up.

Hooch immediately took out all of the slower players who were prospective seekers and chasers and sent them back.

She was left with 8 kids.

"TEAM PLAYERS, GET OVER HERE." Hooch hollered over.

Harry, along with the rest got over to Hooch and automatically took their positions by role.

"Newbies, join their groups as per your prospective role." Hooch commanded.

"Keepers first."

Hooch herself shot all of the goals, she zipped around, moving with the grace of a pro, and dunking in the goals, getting all 10 of her attempts in for all the newbies and most in even for the team players, only Oliver Wood managed to block 7 out of the 10 shots, automatically making him the top choice for keeper. Harry noted the Quidditch-crazed Ron Weasley did fairly well for the keeper position and noted him for the Gryffindor Quidditch team of the future, once Oliver was out.

"Beaters next."

Hooch had a frown on after the beater trials.

"By far the best beater out there was Hopkins of Hufflepuff, but the second best were Fred and George Weasley, but you two rely a lot on your twin-work, and Hopkins did quite a bit better so… the beaters are Hopkins of Hufflepuff and Melinoe of Ravenclaw. Chasers next, Wood, in the goal, Hopkins, Melinoe, I want you two bludgering it up for the prospective chasers."

All the chasers were competing for the same ball and trying to get it in the same goal, the game would end after 20 goals were scored, at which point Hooch expected there too be a few clear choices.

Angelina Johnson got the early lead, managing to steal the ball and get a surprisingly accurate shot through the left goal, which Oliver tumbled to stop but only managed to deflect onto the rim and into the goal.

After that, there were a few attempts, notably by Katie Bell and Montague, Slytherin's captain.

Finally the second goal of the game was once again a lucky shot by Angelina who flipped upside down and threw it past Oliver to gain a clear lead.

Montague aggressively got the next goal and retained possession to make another two attempts before a handy swipe by Hufflepuff's lead chaser, Pithy earned him the ball and got 1 goal to his name.

Angelina continued to dominate, getting a third and fourth goal in, while Montague pulled another one through as well. Katie got a few in as well, but at the end of the game, it had been very one-sided.

Angelina had 8 goals to her name.

Montague had 5.

Pithy had 3.

Katie had 2.

Alicia Spinnet had 1 and finally Ravenclaw's chaser Bofur had 1.

"The chasers will be Johnson of Gryffindor, Montague of Slytherin and Pithy of Hufflepuff. Seekers, get yourselves up here! There will be 10 snitches to be caught, beaters will be up there as well."

Harry's competition was Cedric, Cho, Malfoy and two opportunistic Gryffindor second years.

Harry was mildly concerned about Cedric, fairly sure he could beat Cho and positive of his superiority over Malfoy and the two second years.

It was beginning to get dark and the snitch would be hard to find so Harry vowed to catch it quickly before it went completely out of sight.

With a few quick moves, Harry was right on the tail and Cedric chose to follow him immediately while the other seekers went out looking for the snitch in other places.

Harry gritted his teeth and pushed his nimbus to its limits, keeping himself ahead of Cedric by a few metres, the snitch took a sharp dive to try and escape Harry, by this point, everyone else had seen the snitch and were speeding over to try and take the snitch.

Harry cut the power on his broom, letting gravity pull him down completely, pointing his brook downwards, grabbing the snitch and blasting upwards just as he was about to crash into paste on the pitch.

Cedric managed to beat out Harry on the next two but Harry came back with a streak of 4 in a row.

In the end the seeker competition ended up being even more one-sided that the chaser one if that was even possible, with Harry catching 5, Cedric getting 3 and Cho getting 2, disappointing all the other prospectives who were all out of their depths when dealing with the three team seekers.

"The seekers for the Hogwarts Quidditch team will be Potter of Gryffindor, the team has been selected, since you are all house team players, you will continue your normal schedule as well as 1 hour every morning. I will be sending your timings to yourselves specifically. Good luck for the competition, make Hogwarts and myself proud by winning this as well as the Triwizard competition." At this Hooch glanced at Harry specifically.

 ***** End of Chapter…**

 **An: Not really! Double Chapter. :-P**

 ***** Next week**

The week passed very quickly, Harry continued to do well in most of his classes, Arcturus was still teaching defence, a subject which had been renamed to avoid Voldemort's curse to just 'Defence' as opposed to Defence against the dark arts. Curiously enough, Voldemort seemed to have tied the curse to the title, so Arcturus' innovative solution seemed to have actually managed to completely avoid the curse.

Dumbledore was kicking himself for not thinking about it sooner, for a long time, getting a good defence teacher had become nigh impossible for a long time before Arcturus.

Harry himself was looking forward to the arrival of the other two schools, the only person he had met from either was Fleur Delacour, who was part-veela and had taken part in the duelling competition, playing for France.

He was sad that the Triwizard tournament was only European countries, he would have loved to meet his Asian friends again and the Americans would also have been fun to face off against.

With a start Harry noticed the flying carriage that was descending from the sky and he could vaguely make out the packed inside which seemed to hold almost the entire sixth and seventh years of Beauxbatons as well as some of the fifth years, if Harry's squinty eyes were correct.

At the same time, a ship began rising out of the lake, which Harry noted was flying the flag of Durmstrang.

The Beauxbatons students were the first to arrive, and Harry immediately noticed the effect of Delacour's veela heritage, with perhaps a few other half or full veelas as well.

Harry's occlumency managed to stop the effect on himself but he could empathise with the veelas in the group somewhat, being famous enough to draw such looks of adoration from others himself.

As the Beauxbatons students walked through the gates of the castle, Fleur Delacour threw Harry a filthy look, apparently, she still hadn't gotten over her overwhelming defeat at the hands of the Heir Potter.

Soon enough the Durmstrang students also arrived, though they were very obviously organised in some sort of hierarchy, with some of the lanky and shorter students standing up front while at the back stood the up and coming Quidditch star Viktor Krum along with their Headmaster Karkaroff (ex-Death Eater, Harry noted) and three other coaches presumably for the Quidditch, Duelling and Chess challenges, though Harry idly wondered what role the chess coach fulfilled at their school.

McGonagall had surprisingly taken over the chess competition, apparently, she had a 'passion' for the game, and had transfigured a giant sentient chess set for her mastery in transfiguration which Harry thought to be a somewhat strange but respectable feat of magic.

Once all the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students had trickled into the Great Hall, and were standing where the first years usually stood, though packed much closer together, Dumbledore made to welcome Hogwarts' guests.

"Please give a round of applause for the students of Beauxbatons school of magic and the Durmstrang Institute!" Dumbledore put his own hands together, somehow managing to amplify his own claps.

"Now, presenting to the student body for the first time… the goblet of fire!"

Dumbledore pulled off the tarp that was covering the large and conspicuous object that had somehow escaped Harry's notice so far (Harry suspected notice-me-not charms or author forgetfulness) to reveal a huge and majestic goblet, with a huge gold base and an intricate glass design on the cup portion, from the mouth of the goblet burst a huge blue fire which seemed to transfix all the students, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang included.

"To enter your name, all you have to do is write down your name on a piece of paper and throw it into the goblet. It will automatically enter you into a magical contract if you are chosen, a copy of said magical contract will be available upon askance if any student wishes to read it over. The basic contents are that you are required to participate in three tasks, one yule ball and one victor's ceremony. Once again, I implore you to be sure of your decision to enter the tournament, while not deadly, it can seriously injure a person so this is your last warning…" Dumbledore trailed off warningly, looking around piercingly at some of the jokers and pranksters, sticking especially long on Fred and George Weasley.

"… Other than that, Beauxbatons will be bunking with the Gryffindors and Durmstrang with the Slytherins, the male students will be spread out across the male dorms and vice versa for the females, you may now begin the feast and…welcome to Hogwarts." With that Dumbledore clapped and almost as a whole, the entire hall started eating.

Harry noticed that there was indeed more than one veela, there was Fleur and some Moreau girl who was also attracting about as much attention from duelling boys.

"Honestly, they aren't that attractive." Hermione muttered, annoyed at the lovestruck puppy expression sported by a large amount of Hogwarts' population of boys.

"They're at least partially veela, their aura would create this kind of reaction even if they were really ugly, which of course is prevented by their veela genes." Harry whispered to his best friend.

"But if they're veela, why aren't you affected?" Hermione asked, confusedly.

"Occlumency has many uses." Harry said, making his voice sound somewhat mysterious then bursting into peels of laughter, drawing a grin from Hermione as well.

"What is so funny?" Harry heard the cold voice of Fleur Delacour from his right."

"Inside joke." Harry provided.

Fleur raised an eyebrow, looking every bit the haughty princess, "Whatever, please pass the bouillabaisse."

Harry passed over the requested dish and the half-veela swept off back to her part of the table.

"What's her problem, I thought she'd love someone who could resist her allure." Hermione asked.

"I completely thrashed her at the duelling cup, she was one of the favourites to win the thing before I came and knocked her out in the third round." Harry informed Hermione.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Whew, that was a long one. BTW, dare any1 to find the Hobbit reference, it's fairly obvious if you've read the novel.**


	33. The Duelling Team

**An: Finally, an update for the Intelligent Potter!**

 ***** Present**

"What's her problem, I thought she'd love someone who could resist her allure." Hermione asked.

"I completely thrashed her at the duelling cup, she was one of the favourites to win the thing before I came and knocked her out in the third round." Harry informed Hermione.

Hermione nodded in understanding, "You can have that effect on people when you beat them." Hermione mentioned lightly.

"Are you going to enter the Triwizard, Hermione?" Harry asked curiously.

Hermione hesitated before shaking her head, "I don't want any part of the controversy associated with the tournament."

"Controversy?" Harry said confusedly.

"Honestly Harry, do your research before deciding whether or not to enter a tournament! Not only has the tournament ended in the death of many of its participants, but its winners were often left with life-long injuries. The Ministries have assured people that the tournament is completely safe this year…but most don't believe it, especially with that fool Bagman in the sports ministry." Hermione said.

"Dumbledore had a say in it, he wouldn't let us participate in a tournament that could leave us killed." Harry spoke.

Hermione spoke hesitantly, "He may be a good man and a great teacher, Harry, but you have to admit that he isn't the best at preventing danger. Anyway, it was Professor Black that wanted you in the tournament more than the Headmaster anyway."

Harry nodded, a little apprehensive at this point but still determined, "Well, I'm still entering."

At the end of the meal, Dumbledore stood, "It's time for the goblet to be opened, you may now enter your name into the fire, beware, if you're under 5th year, think long and hard before entering. I have worked tirelessly with the Ministry to make sure the tasks are not dangerous, but severe embarrassment can be just as dangerous sometimes."

Dumbledore's eyes scanned the crowd before smiling gently, "Off you go now, unless you wish to enter the tournament."

Hermione stayed with Harry as he went to enter his name.

Dumbledore descended down from the stage and peered at Harry closely, "Be careful Harry, and come meet Arcturus and I at the regular time today."

Harry nodded, "Yes, Headmaster, but I need to go for the duelling tryouts just before, so I might be a bit late."

Dumbledore nodded, "That'll be fine, just show up as early as you can."

*** **Duelling tryouts**

Filius Flitwick stood at the front of the room with Arcturus alongside him.

"All of you prospectives will be duelling Arcturus, I will decide who the best are from your performances, if you believe you could increase your performance, you are welcome to a second try but that will be all." The short Charms Professor spoke.

Arcturus began to pick students randomly to duel.

Several third and fourth years tried their hand, and were fairly competent because of the training for the Lord of the Blacks.

Even still, Arcturus patronised then for a bit before completely knocking them over with a simple lazy spell-chain.

Oliver Wood, Harry's Quidditch captain was the first candidate of interest.

Wood started out with a fairly conserved offense, and Harry noted idly that he was preparing himself for defence.

As expected, Arcturus suddenly burst out a huge spell-chain, in anticipation of this, Wood blocked the majority of the spells, pulling up a shield and moving out of the way.

Suddenly Wood seemed to be completely on the offensive, hoping that Arcturus had overextended on the attack, not knowing even a hundredth of the man's potential. Unfortunately for the Gryffindor keeper, Arcturus simply batted all of Wood's spells out of the way before responding again with several spells, this time giving Wood no reprieve from his attack.

Wood stumbled backwards, barely able to keep up with the spellfire, gritting his teeth but standing his ground despite the onslaught of spells.

He took a step forward, trying to gain ground on Arcturus to intimidate him but only managing to get the Defence professor to raise his fighting another notch.

Arcturus transfigured the ground beneath Wood to mud, which Wood depulo'd at Arcturus and jumped out the hole created by the loss of mass.

Arcturus took the opportunity to vanish the mud and simply stun Wood, while he was undefended.

Flitwick squeaked in excitement as Wood was rennervated, "Good job, Mr Wood!"

After that, there were some other lacklustre performances, then Cedric.

Harry was excited for his friend, knowing that Cedric was likely to get onto the team.

Cedric began fairly cautiously, throwing spells at Arcturus at a pretty good speed, but not overcommitting to any lengthy attacks.

Arcturus began fighting back, immediately moving onto transfiguration and innovative battle.

Cedric grit his teeth but managed to negate Arcturus' attacks using techniques learnt from the duelling cup.

Arcturus nodded with respect at the Hufflepuff's skill before throwing an elemental assault at an unsuspecting Cedric.

With the quick burst of water, Cedric was drenched and on the floor. A quick stunner caught him as Arcturus finished the duel with a flourish.

Flitwick seemed positively delighted at the result of the battle and called up Hermione to be next.

Arcturus did not waste any time with his pupil. He started out with a warm-up spell-chain which Hermione blocked and sent back in fairly routine fashion. The two bounced spells back and forth, Arcturus firing quickly, Hermione just a second behind in countering them.

A sheen of sweat came onto Hermione's forehead, stamina wasn't her best area, but Arcturus wasn't even winded, increasing the level of his attack, continuing spells but interlacing bursts of water and air.

Hermione countered this using Earth elemental magic, with which she was fairly proficient. She pulled stone out of the construction of Hogwarts and blocked Arcturus' attacks with it, banishing the broken pieces at him and following it up with her own assault of spells, in set spell-chains that could have overwhelmed a weaker wizard but barely affected Arcturus, who sprung into action, blocking all of the spells quickly and turning a few around, sending them cruising back at Hermione.

Despite her success at keeping him back so far, Hermione was pushed really onto the defensive and was unable to get a strike in, finally being completely overwhelmed by Arcturus and knocked out by a sneaky wall of air.

Arcturus had began to sweat a little but that was nothing compared to the buckets of sweat and heavy panting of his combatant.

Flitwick seemed awed by Hermione's performance, out of words.

Harry went up next, and didn't even give Arcturus the pleasure of starting like Hermione did, he threw a quick spell-chain at Arcturus, sending another one before the first had even hit, knowing already that all of it would be batted aside by the oldest Black.

With a deep breath, Harry called on his key weapon.

Harry summoned a burst of fire from his wand, sending it jetting at Arcturus who battled it with a tidal wave of water that materialised from his wand, which was moving at the speed of light.

With a grunt, Harry managed to evaporate the water, but only just managed to bat aside the incoming spell-chain that Arcturus sent to finish him off.

He fought the elemental game with Arcturus a little bit longer, before the Lord Black raised the battle another notch and completely destroyed Harry, knocking him out against the wall with a banishing spell, while Harry was defending from his Basilisk of fire and his oncoming volley of area damage spells.

After not very long consideration, the results were sounded out.

"The members of the duelling team of Hogwarts are… Cedric Diggory! Hermione Granger… and Harry Potter! The substitutes are Angelina Johnson and Oliver Wood!" Flitwick said happily.

*** **End of Chapter**


	34. Triwizard Champions

*** **Present**

Time passed fairly quickly for Harry and Hermione as both did fairly in most of their subjects. Both third-years were extremely busy, as they had schoolwork, training from Dumbledore and Arcturus to balance alongside their dueling training and in Harry's case, Quidditch training as well.

The Headmaster had overruled Arcturus and said that they would have shortened training sessions.

"You two have come very far in the last year, not only do you have more commitments now, you are also quite ahead of schedule in training, I believe we can ease off on the training and half the length of our current sessions." Dumbledore mandated.

Arcturus frowned slightly but consented, "Very well, but you two must play to your best in training, I will be duelling you myself in training so that you may exercise your full capability and not slack off."

Harry and Hermione nodded their consent.

"Harry, I know you have entered the Triwizard tournament and that is one of the reasons, I'm giving you more time off right now, in the likely scenario that you get chosen as the Hogwarts champion, you will not get another moment of rest, I would highly suggest that you use your newfound free time to relax and…being a child." The Headmaster said quietly to Harry.

"You know Harry, my initial plan was to let you live out your childhood, and only begin your training in your fifth or sixth year at Hogwarts. Arcturus may have convinced me that you needed to start training early, but there's still a part of me that wishes you got a chance to grow up a bit more." Dumbledore sighed, his age more apparent to Harry now than it had been ever before.

Harry nodded, unsure of what to say to his Headmaster.

"I think you did the right thing, Headmaster." Harry finally decided on, then hurrying out the Room of Requirement before Dumbledore could reply.

"I hope so, my boy," Dumbledore whispered out to an empty room.

*** **Great Hall**

Dumbledore stood majestically in front of the great hall, "Good evening students, faculty and guests, today is the day that our Triwizard Champions are to be picked. The Goblet of Fire will pick three students, one from each of our great establishments of education. Before the ceremony begins, I would personally like to thank some of our sponsors for this tournament, Nimbus Brooms Incorporated, Ollivander Wands and the International Wizarding Chess Association. I would like to also mention the International Wizarding Chess Association will also be sponsoring the chess career of the first-place winner of the Triwizard Chess Competition and giving them an automatic qualification for the First Annual Wizarding Chess Competition that will be taking place in Sweden this year with 50 open places. Now that the formalities are out of the way, let's get the Triwizard tournament officially started!"

Dumbledore tapped the goblet of fire and the giant golden goblet glowed a light blue before flames of a similar blue colour sprung forth from it, flaring higher than they had even when names were being entered.

A piece of paper fluttered out from the ancient artifact.

"The champion for Beauxbatons is… Fleur Delacour!" Dumbledore stated out.

The half-veela rose gracefully, smirking out at the crowd from where she sat at the Gryffindor table.

Fleur elegantly walked into the antechamber assigned to the champions.

"The champion for Durmstrang is…Victor Krum!"

Finally, the third piece of paper fluttered out from the goblet, "The champion for Hogwarts is…Harry Potter!" Dumbledore said, much to the uproar of the students of Hogwarts, especially the seventh years. Cedric smiled over at Harry and nodded his congratulations while Angelina Johnson of his own house seemed to be slightly shocked to be shown up by the third year but gave Harry a watery smile nonetheless.

Harry walked to the antechamber smartly, but just before he entered, another piece of paper fluttered out of the goblet.

"…Harry Potter?" Dumbledore read out in confusion.

Harry turned around, "Yes, Professor Dumbledore?" he asked in quite apparent confusion.

"Harry, did you enter your name twice?" Dumbledore asked.

"No Headmaster." Harry returned.

"Very well then, Harry, go inside and wait…" Dumbledore said, lost in thought.

'Somebody is trying to force Harry into the tournament, likely because of the high death toll…" Dumbledore wondered.

He mechanically announced the champions names again, drawing a large round of applause.

"For the winner of this illustrious tournament are… 10,000 galleons in rewards!" Dumbledore announced, "The judges for the actual tournament will be the three school heads, as well as a representative from each of our sponsors, Nimbus, Ollivanders and the IWCA. Their representatives will be arriving tomorrow." Dumbledore announced.

"Anyway, before you can proceed with your meals, here is an outline of the tournament's next couple events. Tomorrow will be the traditional weighing of the wands ceremony, held and sponsored by Ollivander's Wands. It will be held AFTER classes in Events Chamber 3. In exactly 7 days, next Saturday will be held the Quidditch opening ceremony, bringing in several professional players to play the opening match as well as a race of the seekers between the three school seekers as well as the seeker brought in by Nimbus Brooms for the event. The following day, a Sunday will be the opening of the Chess Competition, bringing in the most lauded Chess Player in the Wizarding World and biggest funder of the IWCA, Niko Derome, all the way from Finland."

There was a large cheer about the news of the Quidditch opening ceremony, with people excitedly wondering who would be brought in by the Nimbus Broom Company, with bets on players of the Falmouth Falcons and the American National Team, both of which were sponsored by the company.

*** **Champion's antechamber**

Harry entered the room which held the other two champions, both of them sixth years from their respective schools.

Fleur gave Harry a cold look but did not comment on his age, having faced him in the Duelling tournament.

Krum on the other hand gave Harry a very curious look, "Are you the Hogwarts champion." Krum said from under a thick Bulgarian accent.

Harry nodded in confirmation.

"Are you not a little young?" Krum asked hesitantly.

"Some would say so." Harry said in a half-answer, "but I was chosen by the goblet after all, so I must be the most qualified from Hogwarts." Harry continued reasonably.

*** **End of Chapter**


	35. The schemes of VoldeBaby

**An: This chapter provides insight into the situation of Voldemort. I don't feel the need to hide this and plot-dump it later as was done in canon. It worked in canon, but I am nowhere near skilled enough to work in enough dream-hints and plot-dumps to make this work without a proper narrative of events, so to hell with mystery, here you go.**

 ***** Riddle Manor, several days ago, (before narrative present)**

Barty Crouch Jr nursed the Voldemort-baby, as his infantile master mulled over his plan.

Voldemort knew he needed the blood of his arch-enemy for his chosen ritual to work. The only three whom he thought would work would Albus Dumbledore, Arcturus Black and Harry Potter. The first two were highly dangerous wizards, and while he could probably beat them at his peak, in his current form, he was useless and Barty, despite his astuteness and considerable duelling prowess would be about as good as a sack of potatoes in front of the wizened wizards. Not to mention, Dumbledore and Black were both in Hogwarts with no real way to lure them out of the castle.

This left only Harry Potter as a possibility, though the Potter boy was also in the castle, he would be the easiest to lure out of it.

Voldemort flicked through several hundred ideas per second to lure out the Potter Heir, each as implausible as the next.

Voldemort cursed his lack of power at that particular moment, he was immensely grateful to have a competent minion in Barty but he missed the great monies of his Pureblood lords, his dueling powerhouses in the form of Avery and Bella, his hundreds of minions and most of all, his own body and power.

Still, Voldemort narrowed down his ideas quickly. He surmised that the quickest way to get the boy to himself would be through the Triwizard tournament somehow. Perhaps through creating a portkey in the form of the cup at the end, he could probably imperious one of the sponsors, maybe the Chess representative.

The harder part would be to rig the goblet to spit out Potter's name in the first place. He was apparently one of the favorites for the Hogwarts champion position but Voldemort wasn't one to leave his plans to chance, he would have to find some way to rig the goblet in the next couple days.

Voldemort wished for the utmost time that he had a foothold within the castle, he wasn't sure exactly how much he could trust Severus Snape, and he wouldn't risk being sold out to Dumbledore and being entirely done for. The Head of Slytherin, with his mastery of Occlumency, was too slippery to be trusted, a true Slytherin.

He had hoped to plant Barty in the castle as the Defence professor but that plan was thwarted by that damn Black who had managed to circumvent his curse entirely, and he would be unable to place such a curse on the position without intimate contact with the castle and a ward-stone to connect to.

He briefly considered attempting an exorcism of Binns but decided that not only did he not have the resources for that, but it would make Dumbledore insanely suspicious.

No, he had to go inside Hogwarts himself for his plan to come even remotely close to working.

He would need a homunculus.

This led him back to his original problem.

To acquire a homunculus, he would need Potter's blood.

To get Potter's blood, he would need to acquire a homunculus.

He was stuck in circular thinking. Voldemort berated himself, he had to plan with what he had, it was how he had become so big in the first place.

Voldemort wondered whether a transfigured body would work.

He remembered his own research into alchemy, which was basically what he'd be attempting with the ritual.

 _The main advantage of alchemically transmuted objects over the same transfigured objects are the magical properties. Transmutation not only keeps all magical abilities, it is also immune to magic and never reverts back to its original form._

Still, he didn't need the transfiguration to last forever, if Crouch could power it properly, he could stick his own soul into the damn thing temporarily. What he needed to work out was whether his magic would transfer over with him, because that would be integral to his plan.

Furthermore, he would need to be able to use his animagus ability to infiltrate the wards, one of the few weaknesses, and the only one he could exploit, in the wards.

Voldemort, with a little help from Crouch, worked out the complex arithmantic calculations of the possibility of the temporary homunculus.

Voldemort found that regular transfiguration wouldn't work for his needs, but he wasn't the greatest Dark Lord of the century just because of his (former) good looks and charm, his intelligence was second only to that of Dumbledore and possibly Black.

Voldemort managed to work out a partial alchemy that would suit his purposes, he wasn't an expert in the field of alchemy but he knew enough to get by. Transmuting an actual human body required great sacrifices and even his own final homunculus plan worked several integral parts of his body on enchantments and only used as much alchemy as strictly necessary to keep himself alive.

Voldemort devised a ritual to transmute basically only skin and bone, with the complexities of a real human body including the brain up to transfiguration and some short enchants which Crouch should be astute enough to manage.

Within a few short days, and a few dozen kilos of refined gold, and one spared 'bone of father' were used to create the temporary body of Lord Voldemort. Alchemy always struck Voldemort as an uncomfortably sentimental art. The one bone of father was probably worth more in this particular alchemy than all of the gold because of the emotional value it held (or should hold) to the father's son, in this case, Voldemort.

Voldemort took a few heaving breaths, straining his transfigured lungs uncomfortably. He had only a few hours to do this.

It was now or never.

With a crack, Voldemort was outside the gates of Hogwarts.

Voldemort turned to his animagus form, panicking when the transfigured parts of him groaned in protest at the re-transfiguration but finally managing to turn into the thin snake that was his animagus form.

He simply slithered through the gates of Hogwarts, altering the enchantment on the goblet to allow for four schools, after masterfully rerouting the alarm ward on the goblet to Dumbledore's very own phoenix-podium.

The Dark Lord entered the chit of paper, forcing the goblet to recognise it as a fourth school before exiting the premises victoriously.

His plan had worked!

Harry Potter would be in the Triwizard tournament.

As his homunculus fell apart in front of his very eyes, as Voldemort had just about managed to escape back into the Volde-baby body in time, he felt jubilant and surer than ever, that at this point next year, he would have his very own body.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Wow, this really wrote itself. Not a lot happens but a good look into how Voldemort managed without Barty in the castle.**

 **Px5 out.**


	36. The Weighing of the Wands Ceremony

**An: Biggest 'pro' for fanfiction – You learn how to type REALLY quickly.**

 ***** Present, Good ol Hoggy, Events Chamber 3**

Almost the entirety of the school and all of its guests were seated in the hastily transfigured bleachers as the dozens of press reporters took pictures of the three champions.

Fleur was coldly staring straight in front of herself, with a look of disinterest, in spite of which, the non-occluded males were still drooling over her.

Krum looked surprisingly awkward on the ground, Harry had seen his graceful flying but apparently, his grace was only in the air. The Bulgarian seeker was looking gruff and somewhat uncomfortable.

Harry himself was looking fairly relaxed but he knew he stuck out like a sore thumb from his much older competition. Not only was he much shorter than either Fleur or Krum but his features were still very much more childish, despite his scarily good fitness for his age.

The event was being hosted by a very excited Ludo Bagman, who Harry noted was the head of the department of magical sport as well as an old beater from the Applebys.

"WELL HELLO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TO THE CEREMONY…OF THE WEIGHING OF THE WANDS!" Bagman yelled at the top of his voice, along with a sonorous charm on his throat, making Harry wince from the loudness of the man that was standing right next to him.

"SO, THE WAY THAT THIS WORKS IS-" Bagman began to yell but Ollivander tapped him on the shoulder.

"I think I can handle it from here, Ludo." Garrick Ollivander said calmly, before stepping forward, "The point of the weighing of the wands, is merely to check that all participants are using legal wands that do not disadvantage them and that they do not have illegal extensions as defined by the International Condeferation of Wizards, for general sport and duelling. This simple check has turned into a ceremony over the years, may I now ask the oldest champion to step forth, Mr Victor Krum." Ollivander said formally.

The stoic Bulgarian stepped forward and handed his wand to Ollivander who turned it over a few times.

"Ah, a Gregorovitch creation, 10 and a fourth inches, hornbeam wood and a dragon heartstring core, very fine craftsmanship…but I've always found them a little…"

Ollivander trailed off, as he thought for the word.

After a bit, he shook his head and waved the wand, conjuring a golden snitch which he handed to Krum, along with his wand.

"The wand of Mr Krum is in perfect condition and perfectly legal for the Triwizard Tournament." Ollivander announced, "May I now have the second oldest contestant, Ms Fleur Delacour."

The French witch strutted up to the old wand-maker and handed her wand to him proudly.

Ollivander turned the wand over in his hand and waved his own wand over the thing a few times.

"A custom wand?" he asked Fleur, who nodded proudly.

"A custom wand, nine and a half inches, Rosewood with…Veela hair, quite unconventional and possibly temperamental but perfectly legal and in great condition, can I have Mr Potter up here now?" Ollivander said.

Harry went up, handing his wand to Ollivander who seemed to forget where he was for a second as he gazed at one of his own creations.

"Ah, one of my finest creations, Mr Potter, you've kept it in excellent condition, 11 inches, holly, with the feather of a phoenix."

With that, the old man handed Harry's wand back to him.

"Well, that concludes the ceremony of the weighing of the wands." Ollivander bowed out.

Ludo took over again and Harry silently apologised to his poor ears.

"WELL, NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE PRESS TO DO THEIR THING, FEEL FREE TO STICK AROUND GUYS AND GALS!" Ludo said.

Not many people left, for many, this was the biggest part of the entire ceremony, especially because Harry got in.

Before they started, one reporter raised her hand and spoke before anybody called on her, "Do you think I could perhaps have an exclusive with young Harry, he might be too shy to answer some of my questions out here in the public eye…"

Immediately, Harry knew something was up, the look in the reporter's eye didn't bode well for the interview, she was eyeing him like a piece of meat.

Ludo Bagman, the gormless idiot that he was looked positively delighted with the idea, "OF COURSE RITA, I'M SURE HARRY WON'T MIND!"

"Actually, Ms Skeeter," Harry said, recognizing her name as that of the Daily Prophet's gossip-monger, "Not only is it illegal for me to conduct a private interview without the written consent of my guardian, I'm sure I can answer all of your questions appropriately out here."

The reporter looked like she was about to protest, so Harry continued.

"I'm sure you don't want to get onto the wrong side of my guardian, Sirius can be a bit…overprotective."

Rita looked mighty displeased, but knew she couldn't handle the full wrath of the house of Black which could crush her budding career right into the ground at that moment, if any of its members felt so disposed.

"Very well, Harry. Let me start off this press interview with a question for you, how did you manage to get into a competition where your rivals are almost 4 years your elder, is there perhaps a technique to maybe…convince the goblet?" Rita said suggestively.

"Ms Skeeter, the goblet is a very powerful magical artefact, if I were even close to capable of hoodwinking it as you are suggesting it, then I wouldn't need to because I'd already be capable enough to breeze through its testing without even a chance for anybody else. I believe that I got in purely on merit, and my significant duelling practise which led to my win in this year's under-17 duelling world cup." Harry said tactfully.

"Ah, but what about your name coming out of the goblet twice?" Rita said triumphantly.

"I believe that I have already mentioned that I'm not capable of confounding the goblet, it is possible that it was an attempt to enter me into the competition from either a well-wisher or somebody who knows of the death-toll of the competition." Harry said.

"Do you think you can last against such experiences competitors?" Rita asked innocently, waiting for something she could paraphrase.

"Yes." Harry gave a simple one-word answer.

With that disappointing interview, the topics of discussion moved on to the other participants as well, though Harry still got a fair amount of questions.

*** **End of Chapter**


	37. VoldeBaby schemes some more

**An: Hello, a guest review I recently got (quite well-phrased too) did not like my concept of elemental magic, not because of my writing or anything but because fire, water, air, and earth aren't actually elements and apparently people who read fanfiction are stupid enough to believe everything I write for a HARRY POTTER fanfiction about MAGIC so I will put in a disclaimer here. The concept of elemental magic is entirely fictional for the purpose of this story, and if you really want to know about the elements, please look up the Periodic Table, and I can assure you that men have definitely been on the moon.**

 **An2: Sorry for the long ANs but I can't really reply to guests. Another guest gave me a weird speech about how cliffhangers are "immature writing devices" and talked about how shows with cliffhangers have been replaced with…Judge Judy? What really puzzles me is that this was for chapter 2, and while I don't remember the contents of it, I highly doubt there's anything I references there that wasn't explained in the next THIRTY-FOUR chapters.**

 ***** 2 days ago, ICW headquarters**

The International Wizard Chess Association was an ICW initiative to promote chess but the budget set out for it was less than exemplary.

The IWCA was still operating out of one of the ICW's old Headquarters in Britain.

The entire operation was managed by a young Finnish entrepreneur by the name of Mikko Kodisoja, he would be accompanying the chess maestro Niko Derome to Hogwarts the following day for what would be their biggest event since their founding a few months back.

Mikko was doing his best to obtain funding and create a large event maybe on par with the Quidditch Premier League but he needed money for that, lots of it and Derome wasn't quite rich enough to fund an entire league and the ICW was very tight with its money. His only option would be to appeal to the rich parents of purebloods in Hogwarts and that was why he was really excited for the event.

Mikko's day was basically over, it was just him and Niko who were working on plans for the opening ceremony at Hogwarts and ways to promote chess to the students.

Niko rubbed his eyes and yawned, "We'll continue tomorrow, it's getting really late."

With that, Mikko's countryman left the room and Mikko prepared to pack up as well but he sensed movement behind him.

Mikko had the basic combat training that every member of the ICW had to take but he was no great shakes.

The figure struck immediately with a few spells that Mikko managed to bat away.

Whoever his assailant was, he was older than Mikko so he had the agility advantage, Mikko jumped at his opponent, attempting to wrestle him to the ground, but his opponent shot an expulsion charm straight into his stomach.

Mikko fell backwards, gasping for breath and got an immobilisation charm to the chest for his troubles.

Barty Crouch Jr Panted slowly then dragged the man behind himself, he would need all the hair on Mikko's head.

*** **Before Present, Riddle Manor**

While VoldeBaby was thinking of ways to cloak himself to the Hogwarts wards that wouldn't require him to have a homunculus for an extended period of time, Barty was in the final stages of brewing the insanely difficult Polyjuice potion.

"How goes your potion, Barty?" The high-pitched voice of VoldeBaby called out.

"Almost done, master, it should be ready in time for the Triwizard." Barty replied, focussing on inserting the ingredients as fast as he could so that the potion could get its final 4 hours of stewing over on moderate heat.

*** **Present**

In the form of Mikko Kodisoja, Barty entered the majestic school, with pretend awe and wonder, having read that Mikko himself, was home-schooled.

Voldemort was hidden in his suitcase, having found a way to keep his aura completely blanketed by using the walls of the suitcase and lining them with magic-insulating materials.

The suitcase itself was enlarged so that it was humungous. There were rooms inside the suitcase itself, so that VoldeBaby wouldn't be given away when Barty opened the suitcase lid, there was also another cell for the actual Mikko, so that Barty could keep taking his hairs.

Barty had some magical setups to take care of VoldeBaby's basic needs, such as an automatic milk-bottle and auto-changing nappies.

Only when they needed to converse, either for Voldemort's regular 7 pm report or just to inform Voldemort about a change in circumstances or success in a plan, would Barty have to enter the suitcase.

In VoldeBaby's opinion, it was quite a fantastic idea and an easy way to hide from Dumbledore.

Not to mention the comfort of the room that he had in the suitcase, when Barty had stolen it from a shop, he had stolen the best one possible and then charmed it to look old and fragile just so that eyes wouldn't be on him.

*** **Present, Events Chamber 3, Press Interview**

Some of the other reporters were also trying to get Harry to mess up and reveal information about how he entered.

Creative ways to do such a thing included questions like, "How would one go about confounding a goblet of fire, please explain in detail" and "WHEN you confounded the goblet, what were you thinking?" and many other ways to get around the point.

Harry himself was already tired of the press, especially since he was being focussed on but knew that this only the beginning. He would have to deal with a whole lot more than a small press release in the future, as the Triwizard tournament was only beginning, the event would be getting much bigger in scale.

Sirius and Harry had practised how to answer questions and Arcturus had put in some valuable information. The trick was not to use unnecessary words or words that could be crafted in a negative connotation, thus Harry was very concise in his words, so that there were none that could be cut out for an incriminating quote.

After the entire thing was over and done with, Harry was incredibly tired, annoyed and pissed, he ending up walking back to the common room with Hermione.

*** **End of Chapter**


	38. The Quidditch Opening Ceremony

**An: Sorry for the 2-month wait! I hope some of you are still reading this. I had to return my laptop about a month and a half ago so I've been laptop-less for a loooong time but I have a laptop now! Yay! Although now I don't even really remember what was happening in this story…**

 ***** Present**

For the following week, the Quidditch opening ceremony was highly anticipated. For the few classes before the event, even in the OWL and NEWT classes, there were very few students actually getting work done.

Naturally, Harry and Hermione were two of the few people still working but Harry himself was really excited for the event.

On a more annoying note, he still had no idea what the first task was.

Bagman had simply said that it "tested their versatility and adapting to different tasks."

He was planning on asking Dumbledore in their session that evening, knowing that the other competitors would be informed by their respective head-teachers.

*** **Evening Session w Dumbledore and Arcturus**

The intensity of their sessions had increased a couple notches. Harry had never noticed it in how easily he was beat, but Arcturus had been holding back on him in all their prior training.

"You're part of the Triwizard tournament now, nobody will be holding back on you." Was Arcturus' short explanation.

Harry's goal had changed from trying to get Arcturus on the back foot and was now simply trying to get even one shot in on the older man.

Despite getting beaten even quicker than he usually did, Harry couldn't deny that he was improving quickly.

Arcturus barely duelled with one of his hands, occasionally having to bring the other up to cast a wandless shield in case Harry managed to get a sneaky spell into Arcturus' defence.

Harry's defence was improved significantly as well, despite being proficient with countering and defence, he hadn't had to defend even close to as much as Arcturus was shooting at him currently.

The Black Lord was not reserved in his attack, all of his spells were non-lethal because they were practising, and this did restrict some of his more dangerous elemental magic as well, but Harry was barely capable of defending himself against Arcturus' barrage for a few minutes, let alone a proper duel.

The Lord Black wasn't a showman, he did things quickly and efficiently.

Arcturus' wand did not move any more than he needed it to, every swipe sending multiple spells flying at Harry and every flick creating a wave of water or air.

With a deep grunt of defeat, Harry collapsed under the barrage of spells, getting thrown back into the cushioned wall.

*** **Quidditch Ceremony**

The tiresome Ludo Bagman was back to commentate for the opening ceremony of the Quidditch Opening Ceremony.

Despite this, Harry couldn't help but be excited about the event, it would be the first professional Quidditch match that he would have seen. After all the Quidditch he played, his first Professional Quidditch match!

After spouting about the Nimbus Broom Company for a good fifteen minutes, leaving Harry thoroughly tired with the shameless advertising happening in the tournament, Bagman moved on to talking about the teams playing.

"FOR TODAY'S EXHIBITION MATCH, WE HAVE SOME OF THE GREATEST PLAYERS TO EVER GO PRO IN THE HISTORY OF QUIDDITCH HERE TODAY! OUR FIRST EXHIBITION TEAM IS CAPTAINED BY NONE OTHER THAN THE AMERICAN BEHEMOTH JEFFREY SMITHEREENS!"

Said player streaked onto the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch, doing twirls even as he rose up to do a lap of the entire pitch, blazing past the stands of all four houses. Smithereens was really a 'Behemoth', he was 6'5 and strongly built, especially for a Keeper.

"SMITHEREEN'S 7 ALSO INCLUDE BEATERS JOHNSTON AND JOHNSTON, CHASERS BALTIC, PAZZI AND GARCIA AAAAND SEEKER JAAASON ROY OF OUR VERY OWN ENGLISH QUIDDITCH TEAM!"

The seven all circled the stadium to loud cheers among the packed crowd.

"THEIR JOB WON'T BE A CAKEWALK THOUGH, BECAUSE HERE COME THEIR OPPONENTS, LED BY NEW ZEALAND SENSATION WILLIAMSON!"

The New Zealander was the exact opposite of his American counterpart as captain, he was smaller, lithe and wiry and very close to his broom so as to reduce the air resistance. He circled the stadium then flew to the centre, flying up into the air then diving, pulling out at the last second to pull off a perfect Wronski feint in front of the audience that was going back over his performance.

"ON WILLIAMSON'S TEAM IS KEEPER RODRIGUEZ, IRISH CHASERS MULLET, TROY AAAND MORAN! MAXWELL AND HEADINGWAY ARE BEATERS FOR THE SIDE!"

Said players zoomed onto the field, dressed in blue as opposed to the red of Smithereen's 7.

The two teams flew into starting formation and Madam Hooch released all of the balls, the snitch immediately zooming off into space, with Williamson and Roy both chasing after it.

Harry noticed how much faster professional snitches were than the ones that Hogwarts used for their school matches. He could keep up with the tiny ball but he could only imagine the kind of skill needed to catch the tiny blighter.

With his Omnioculars, Harry could see Roy's eyes moving hectically, tracking every move of the snitch, with his tongue out, concentrating on catching up to the tiny little ball.

With a very sharp turn just before the goal posts, the snitch lost Roy, who nearly smashed into the large goalpost and had lost it by the time he looked around.

Williamson on the other hand, kept on the tail of the tiny golden ball, showing his class with some vicarious flying, flying right through the chaser's formations, swerving right out of the way of a pass, and ignoring several budgets sent at him by the Johnston twins, who kept on his tail, knowing that the game would be over if he caught the snitch.

Meanwhile, Pazzi and Garcia had completely run through the Irish chasers to score the first goal of the game.

Pazzi jagged around the Irish players and threw a low pass to Garcia who dived to take it and threw it hard towards the right goal from an awkward position way below the goal posts which Rodriguez could only bop onto the post and back into the goal.

Garcia did a quick lap of celebration before going back for the throw-off of the quaffle.

Quickly Smithereen's 7 established a good lead of 110-20 points over their opponents, as Rodriguez proved unable to stop any of the opposition's attempts while Smithereen was a rock solid defence, only faltering to a truly amazing execution manoeuvre from the Irish chasers, who feinted twice to get the ball through the middle hoop.

Despite this, Williamson was still on the chase of the snitch. Roy was trying to catch up to him but it seemed only a matter of time until Williamson caught the snitch and Smithereen's 7 knew that.

Garcia sped through the opposition, swerving in many different directions and taking a hard throw to the left hoop, quickly lengthening the lead to 160-20, a full 140 points ahead of their opponents.

Garcia zigzagged through Williamson's 7 but a well placed blunger threw him off his course.

Desperately, he threw a looping high pass to Baltic who received it perfectly and just stilled for a second to take the shot, pulling his arm back for the throw and…

"WILLIAMSON CATCHES THE SNITCH!" Bagman's excited voice filled the stadium.

Baltic let out a scream of frustration, just one goal away from tying the game…

"WILLIAMSON'S 7 WIN THE HOGWARTS EXHIBITION GAME OF '93 BY JUST 10 POINTS!" Bagman exclaimed.

Williamson did a victory lap, ecstatic with the win.

Meanwhile Bagman moved on to more random praising of the Nimbus company while the player's exited the field after one last victory lap for WIlliamson's team.

*** **The end**

 **An: Sorry again for the long delay.**


	39. Daphne Greengrass

**An: I will try to be more regular with these chapters from now onwards but no promises. Also, thanks for 400 favourites!**

 ***** Present**

Dumbledore hadn't given Harry any hints as to what the first task held in store for the champions. Despite Harry's persistent requests, all Dumbledore said was that he was not allowed to tell because of the "rules of the tournament"

"But all of the other head teachers will be telling their champions!" Harry said indignantly, "cheating is one of the biggest parts of the TriWizard tournament!" he quoted Bagman.

Dumbledore fixed Harry with a serious gaze, "You entered this tournament willingly, now you need to fight it yourself, if you have to face Voldemort in the next war, you won't always have a tip on them, you need to fight this yourself."

Harry looked to Arcturus for help but the Lord Black simply shook his head, "I know what the task is, kid, but I'm not going to tell you either, Albus is right, you'll need this experience, it'll teach you more than Albus or I could in 10 years."

"But it's unfair that the other champions will receive the information immediately from their teachers." Harry replied.

"Life isn't fair Harry, you need to know that." Arcturus replied, "but I'll give you a hint, usually, it's a good idea to research what has happened in the past to adjudge what could happen in the future."

Despite some further grilling, that was the most that Harry managed to extract from the two wizened wizards.

*** **Library**

Harry had discussed Arcturus' words with Hermione who immediately decided that they should look up past tournaments in the library, in typical Hermione fashion.

"There are records of every past tournament in _TriWizard Tournaments, A History_ , and the Hogwarts library has at least a few copies!" Hermione had said to him, excitedly.

Harry and Hermione trooped down to the library, which was mostly empty at the time, apart from a Slytherin girl who was sitting in an alcove in a corner and a handful of Ravenclaws who were on a different table, studying for Charms.

Harry followed Hermione as they searched for a copy of the book, getting increasingly frustrated as they were unable to find one, no matter where they looked.

Hermione went up to the librarian, Madam Pince and asked her to check whether they had any copies of the book in stock.

Pince looked through some heavy stacks of parchment before finding the right one and flicking through to the right book.

"No. All 21 copies have been leased out already to other students AND I'm not allowed to lease it out to any champions, Mr Potter so you're out of luck…"

Pince looks over to Hermione, "And don't think about asking Ms Granger to lease out a copy for you either, you may read it in the library, but I'm not letting you lease out a copy of that book either."

The two friends glumly walked away from Madam Pince's table.

"How dare she withhold a book!" Hermione hissed.

"It's out of stock anyway, I guess I'll have to owl-order it." Harry said.

Just as they were about to walk out of the library, a voice stopped them.

"Excuse me…" spoke a sly silken voice that made Harry feel slightly uneasy and on guard.

"Yes?" Harry said, as he turned around.

It was the Slytherin girl who was sitting in the alcove. She sat up and turned the book she was reading towards them.

 _TriWizard Tournaments, A History._

Hermione almost jumped in excitement and a bright smile spread across her face, "Ah! Yes it is! How did you know? Can we borrow it? Please!" Hermione said, firing multiple questions at the blonde.

The Slytherin also gave a small smile, though Harry found it uncomfortably calculating for his liking, the girl wanted something for this.

"Oh, I just overheard your conversation with Madam Pince, and I thought I could help you guys."

She looked at Harry.

"You are our school champion after all."

"I don't think we've been introduced…" Harry trailed off.

"Aah, sorry, entirely my fault, I'm Daphne Greengrass."

"Harry Potter."

"Hermione Granger" Hermione cut in, "It's good to meet you."

"I doubt there's anyone in this school who doesn't know you two, the boy-who-lived and his best friend."

"So, can we have the book?" Harry asked.

"Sure, here it is." Daphne put the book down on a table and sat down.

Harry realised what Daphne wanted in exchange for the book, she wanted to be there.

Hermione didn't seem to have gotten that yet, "Umm, could we read alone?"

Daphne raised a delicate eyebrow.

"It's fine Hermione, it's her book after all." was all that Harry said, before taking a seat on the table and turning the book towards himself and beginning to read.

Hermione sat down too, having also arrived at the same conclusion that Harry did.

"The first task usually involved a fight with a magical creature to test versatility and adaptability to a surprise situation." Daphne filled in, as if she knew exactly what they were looking for.

"The creature is usually a large, lethal and fearsome one, in past years, they have brought dragons, black phoenixes and even lethifolds." Daphne elaborated, "Usually, they bring a creature with great physical strength and maybe a few magical abilities to add to their physical might, and have the task be to retrieve an item from the creature."

Harry hmmed thoughtfully, "So the best technique for that kind of task would be to get around the the big bad without actually having to battle it with a serious disadvantage. Perhaps a disillusioning spell could be useful."

"But the creature could have heightened smell or hearing, like a dragon. Perhaps your invisibility cloak?" Hermione pointed out, giving away a large piece of information to Daphne.

Harry almost grimaced, knowing that Hermione had just given away one of his most advantageous secrets to someone who could possibly be spying for Voldemort.

He would have to confront her to see who she was working for. She was a Greengrass, a largely neutral family who didn't support either side in the previous war, choosing to flee to the Americas where they successfully hid from view of the Dark Lord for over 7 years until his demise, at which point, they returned to the UK and continued to live seamlessly from where they had left off, never talking of what they had done in their extended trip abroad.

They generally worked for themselves only and were generally unlikely to put their neck on the line for a Psychopath like Voldemort, but Harry would choose to err on the side of caution rather than letting the blonde potentially inform Voldemort of his invisibility cloak.

Now, the only problem was actually getting her to tell the truth.

He knew she had occlumency shields from a light scan of her mind, and he wouldn't be able to enter without trying to wrench control from her, and legilimency wasn't his best field even against an inexperienced occlumens.

He was unlikely to get his hands on Veritaserum anytime soon, and there was too much risk in waiting the few months required to brew the potion…

Harry groaned in frustration.

He was going to have to keep a close eye on Daphne Greengrass.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Just realised that this chapter will also break 50k words on this story.**

 **wOw.**

 **Px5 out.**


	40. How Barty found Voldemort

**An: A review made me realise that I haven't gone into enough background for Barty's situation, so here's another VoldeBaby chapter to fill in some gaps. It isn't necessary to read this, so if you don't wanna, then just know that Crouch found VoldeBaby.**

 **End of chapter.**

 ***** A few months prior to present, Crouch Manor**

Bartemius Crouch Sr was reading over some important documents for the Ministry while contemplating his son, Barty Crouch Jr.

He had his son imprisoned under the Imperius curse which had worked now for years on end without a single fightback from Barty Jr but in the last month alone, Jr had almost escaped 7 times, when he emanated a magical pulse which nearly wrenched control back from him.

Fortunately for Barty Sr, he had managed to keep control and Jr seemed to be back under the trance doubly as strong now, seeming even weaker than he had before.

Barty hypothesised that Jr had used up all of his magical energy in the final pulse of magic and was now suffering from magical exhaustion.

Now, he had to get back to his paperwork. Ludo Bagman was up to some more of his usual foolery, he was trying to organise a revival of the long dead TriWizard tournament between Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

Despite Dumbledore seemingly not opposing Bagman like he had expected and the large influential figure of the Lord Black backing him, it was unlikely that Bagman would pass any health and safety guidelines from The Department of Health and Safety, nor would he cooperate with Bagman to coordinate Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. Even after all that, Bagman would have to get multiple sponsors to fund his effort, because the ministry sure as hell didn't have the budget to host such a tournament, what with the exorbitant amounts funnelled into the salaries of the top 10 employees and into the corruption.

Barty Sr read over the proposal in its entirety before beginning to script a letter of denial from his department, stating that he was unwilling to help participate in the creation of the tournament.

Just as he was signing off his name at the bottom of the letter, he sensed a spell coming at him from behind and flung himself out of his chair, just in time to watch the classic Avada Kedavra green smash his chair into smithereens.

Barty Crouch Jr cursed filthily and threw another killing curse with his father's wand that he had picked up from the side-table.

Barty Sr ducked then rolled to the side, trying to get close to Jr.

Barty Sr swept Jr's legs from out under him then ran to his drawer and took out his spare wand, just in time to deflect a nasty looking red curse back at Jr.

Sr responded with a quick spell-chain then followed it up with a stream of fire, he wasn't the ex-Head of Department of the MLE for nothing after all. He could even give Amelia Bones a run for her money.

Jr was also a competent dueller, flicking the spell-chain away then countering the fire by blowing it back at Sr with a well placed gust of wind.

Sr initiated the alarm spell that all Ministry employees knew, making an immediate summons to the Auror office to his immediate location as backup.

Jr berated himself for letting his father use the alarm and pressed his advantage by shooting a surprise Imperio at his father.

Without much time to react and being unable to stop the spell with a shield, Barty Sr attempted to fall backwards and avoid the spell, managing that successfully but ending up in a horrible position to try and protect himself from the follow-up Imperio curse from Jr.

Despite his best attempt, he was taken by the relaxing enchantment of the Imperius curse.

When the Aurors arrived, the Head of Department Amelia Bones ready to fight , he turned them away saying it was a false alarm despite his outlaw son standing behind him under a simple invisibility spell.

Amelia Bones smelt something off about the entire situation, Barty wasn't one to raise a false alarm, he wasn't easily spooked and believed himself capable of handling most situations on his own terms, only if he had serious reason to believe his life was in danger, would he call the Aurors for help, which is the reason she herself went with her top squad.

"Very well then Barty, you wouldn't mind me doing a quick sweep of your house, right?" Amelia asked.

"I would rather you not." Barty Sr said coldly, before slamming the door on Amelia, but not before Bones had snuck an identity confirmation spell onto Barty, identifying him to be himself and not an imposter under the Polyjuice potion, or even glamours.

Back in Barty's house, he was writing a different letter, one claiming he was all for the TriWizard tournament, and he would ensure that it happened.

He then wrote another letter to his old friend Adam in the Health and Safety department, asking him to pass the TriWizard tournament through the system, assuring him that he would take care of the entire thing.

He wrote yet another letter to the CEO of Nimbus Brooms, another man who he had worked with in the past, and requested him to sponsor the TriWizard tournament.

Behind him, Barty Jr grinned maniacally, he _would_ get that Potter boy, no matter what, but meanwhile he had another more important mission.

He had to find his master.

*** **A month later**

Barty Jr had been in regular contact with his father, getting him to follow up on the tournament, getting it fast-tracked through the system, almost a full year earlier than it would have been under any other circumstances, the tournament was preponed to the '93 school year instead of '94, and Dumbledore was very willing to host it, going so far as to get the wizened Wanamaker Ollivander on board as a sponsor as well.

Meanwhile, Barty Jr had travelled all over the world, following every lead to his master, but being so far unsuccessful.

However, this lead to the forests of Albania seemed to be pretty warm.

~Who goes there?~ Barty heard a hiss behind him, recognising the language as parceltongue, he allowed himself hope, hope that his master was alive.

Hope, that his master would return.

"It is me, my Lord, your faithful servant Barty Crouch Jr." Barty said, kneeling to the ground.

A large deadly viper came up to him and spoke in English, "Very well, Barty, we have much to do, much to do indeed…"

*** **End of Chapter**


	41. Iliad

**An: I have no excuse.**

 ***** Present, with Daphne Greengrass**

Damn!

Granger had revealed a lot more than Daphne thought she would.

It was obvious that Potter knew immediately how big of a secret his best friend had given away so easily.

She even caught the boy using legilimency to scan her mind, an ability than she was surprised he even knew about, let alone could use proficiently, though not proficiently enough to avoid detection by her.

The more Daphne found out about the Potter boy, the more of an enigma he seemed to be.

Obviously he was a good dueler, having won the under-18 dueling cup, at least a match for her if not even better, there were some strong duelers around the world after all.

On top of that, he seemed to have some ability in legilimency and an invisibility cloak, which would make him a great spy if he wanted to be, not to mention he was picked as the TriWizard Champion from the entirety of Hogwarts, beating out Diggory and all of the other strong witches and wizards from the entire school, though to be fair, many of the strongest from Slytherin chose not to enter.

Potter was definitely going to be much more than a pawn in the upcoming war between the Dark and the Light, and there would be a war, she was sure of that.

The current Lord Greengrass, Daphne's father Iliad was deeply involved in several rituals through which he had divined that The Dark was spreading into Earth at an alarmingly fast rate.

At this point, Voldemort was nothing more than a pawn being manipulated by the immense power of The Darkness.

Without the power and support granted to the supposed Dark 'Lord' by The Darkness, there would be next to no chance of him attempting another successful rising but he was out there, the body of the Dark Lord stored in a literal shell of darkness.

The Greengrass family was staunchly neutral, and they would never stand underneath that fool Dumbledore or even the more cunning Lord Black but in this case, there was too much Darkness entering the world, at this rate, the entire world would be overcome by its power.

Even 1% of the being could be dangerous for the world, but estimates showed the Darkness to be near 10%!

With that much power, the entire world could be crushed under the boot of the Darkness, leading to another 'Dark Age' unless the light side fought back, and at the moment, even with the power of Harry Potter, Daphne wasn't sure they were strong enough to beat back the Darkness on their own.

They would need the help of at least one more powerful ally.

If they didn't find one fast, it was looking more and more like that ally would be the Greengrasses.

With all of this in mind, Daphne opened her hand-mirror, in the safety of her dorm and whispered her father's name.

"Iliad Greengrass."

The surface of the mirror distorted for a few seconds, and Daphne's face disappeared, to be replaced with the rather severe face of her father.

Iliad Greengrass was still in his 40s but you could mistake him for an older man.

He was very tall and thin, standing at 6 feet exactly.

The hair on his head was a dark grey and his wrinkles were easily visibleand his lighter grey eyes glinted with untold wisdom behind his glasses.

"Daphne." Iliad acknowledged.

"Father."

"So what news do you bring, how prepared is the Potter boy."

"His full fighting strength is still unknown but he has shown strong demonstrations in the Under-18 dueling cup and in simply getting selected as champion of Hogwarts. He is undoubtedly a strong student in every subject." Daphne started.

"You know that I know all this Daphne, do you have any real report."

"After offering Granger and Potter my copy of 'TriWizard Tournaments, A History', I sat in on their strategizing, and found out that Potter has an invisibility cloak, which was let slip by Granger. While she seemed oblivious of the information she was leaking and was completely off-guard, Potter realized from the very start that I was information gathering, and he was careful not to reveal any important information to me. However, he did scan the top of my mind lightly using legilimency, most likely assuming I would not be able to feel it. At the same time, my own legilimency was easily blocked by Potter's Occlumency shields." Daphne reported.

"Legilimency and Occlumency! It seems Dumbledore has been teaching Potter more than we anticipated…"

"After a little snooping, I have found that both Potter and Granger have training lessons with Dumbledore and Black." Daphne confirmed.

Iliad seemed to zone out, which Daphne knew from experience knew meant that he was thinking deeply.

"So that is Arcturus' plan. I was wondering what a man like him was doing teaching at a school."

Daphne raised an eyebrow politely.

Iliad looked at his daughter, "I've met Arcturus Black several times, he is one of the least likely men in the world to simply decide to settle down and start teaching. He is a General, he was in the war with Grindelwald and the first war with Voldemort. He may be a cunning politician but he was a fish out of water in the time between the wars…there is no way that he of all people could settle for simply teaching children as his profession." He explained.

"He seems happy enough where he is." Daphne supplied, "I have been watching him since I learned that he had been brought by Dumbledore to tutor Potter but he seems to be fitting into his role of teacher very well, unlike Quirrel when he was posing as a teacher."

"Arcturus Black is one of the most dangerous men in the world not only because of his immense strength but his incredible intellect, not even you, my daughter, could find a break in his act, if he chose to be a teacher at a school." Iliad said, "In any case, I have a lot to think about, keep information gathering on Potter and report in one week's time what you have learnt."

Daphne nodded, "Yes father."

*** **End of Chapter**


	42. Arcturus meets Daphne

*** **Present, with Harry and Hermione**

Harry seemed to be completely calm as he walked away with Hermione from the library, but Hermione knew something was troubling her best friend.

As they turned the corner and were safely out of Daphne Greengrass' earshot, Harry whispered to Hermione, "Do you know what you just did!"

The bushy-haired girl looked mildly confused, "Huh?"

"Hermione, Daphne Greengrass was obviously gathering information on me." Harry said back.

"What makes it obvious?"

"She's a Greengrass, and there's no way she would have just given us the book and not at least tried to gain some information. Hell, the entire thing might have been staged from the start to make us come to her."

Hermione's mouth opened and closed wordlessly, "So what did I- The Invisibility cloak!" she caught on to it immediately.

"Exactly, the most dangerous thing about her is that we don't know whose side she's on. The Greengrasses are one of the most notoriously neutral families in the wars between the dark and the light but on a purely business level, this information could be very valuable for Voldemort." Harry hissed back.

"Have you tried legilimency?"

"I did, her shields are too good for me to probe without her at least finding me out, and most likely repelling the attack. I scanned the top of her mind a few times in our talk."

"While I was thinking strategy, you two were on a completely different plane…" Hermione mumbled.

"Yeah, and you need to get on it too Hermione." Harry said, "You need to be able to see under the surface or at least not blabber out important secrets like that! Especially to Greengrass, her entire family is the perfect embodiment of Slytherins!"

Hurt shone in Hermione's eyes briefly.

"Hermione, I trust you completely, but you need to be careful. My invisibility cloak is a surprise factor that we may have possibly lost but it isn't the end of the world, but the next thing you let slip might be, anyway we need to consult Arcturus on this, he'll know what to do." Harry spoke, his hard tone softening.

Hermione nodded shakily.

*** **With Arcturus, later**

"So Greengrass is spying on you…" Arcturus mused.

Harry nodded.

"With The Darkness on the rise, it is unlikely that the Greengrasses will be willing to tip the favor any more towards the dark side than it already is, but it would still be safest to make sure where their allegiances lie…" Arcturus mused.

"What does the rising of The Darkness have anything to do with the Greengrasses allegiance?" Harry asked curiously.

"The Greengrasses are a neutral family. That isn't just a political agenda, they work to make sure that balance is maintained in the world. They don't usually take sides as The Darkness is usually pushed back and there is equality in the world, but the power of their family would indeed be useful in the war which is to come." Arcturus said.

"So you want me to confront the Greengrass girl?" Harry asked.

Arcturus got up out of his chair, "No, I will handle Daphne Greengrass."

*** **Later**

Daphne entered the office of her defense professor warily, her hand gripping her wand.

Professor Black had summoned her to his room this evening on 'academic business' which he wanted to discuss with her.

'Bullshit' her mind told her.

And bullshit it was.

"You're here, Greengrass." Daphne heard a cold voice say.

The office chair which had been facing the other way spun around to reveal Arcturus Black sitting in it.

His gaze was unsettling like her father's could be but with the wisdom and weight of his age behind it as well.

The door behind her slammed shut and suddenly Black didn't seem as weak as she had deemed him.

Gone was the stern unyielding professor.

In his place, was a frighteningly strong General, radiating power off himself in waves.

"You have been spying on Harry Potter." He stated, "For how long?"

"3 weeks." She answered truthfully.

"You know a few things no doubt…" Arcturus said, his voice darkening.

Daphne paled, this was looking more and more like it would devolve into violence, and there was no way in hell she could hope to match the power radiating from the old man in front of her.

"Indeed."

"Your father is Iliad Greengrass, correct?" Arcturus said, seemingly off topic.

"Yes." Daphne replied carefully.

"He is a smart man. Tell him, The Darkness is rising." Arcturus said.

Daphne sighed an internal sigh of relief, it looked like there would be no fighting, thank the gods.

"He already knows." Daphne replied.

"So what does he intend to do."

"Wait, wait and see."

"The Greengrass way" Arcturus smiled wryly, "Let your father I will be dropping by on Saturday, he should be home."

With that, the door behind Daphne swung open, letting in a lot of light into the room which seemed to have darkened.

As quickly as she could without giving away her fear too obviously, Daphne got up and fled the room, getting as far away from the Defense Professor as possible.

When she was back in her dorm, she took out her mirror first thing.

"Iliad Greengrass."

The mirror showed her her father.

"Daphne, to what do I owe this surprise, you don't have a report due for almost a week." Iliad said cheerfully, more so than he usually was when he talked business.

"Arcturus Black spoke to me."

Immediately, Iliad was serious, like the cheer was a mirage, disappearing in a single second.

"What did he say." Iliad all but demanded of his daughter.

"He is coming to meet you on Saturday." Daphne said.

"Tomorrow…well it looks like it's time to get some answers." Iliad replied.

*** **Next day, Greengrass Manor**

The Lord Black strode up to the front door of Greengrass manor, known for its large sweeping fields of, what else, green grass.

He knocked smartly on the door of the large mansion, which, despite its size, was still not close to the size of Black Manor."

The door was opened by a house elf, "Who is it!" the house elf squeaked out.

"Tell Lord Greengrass that Arcturus Black is here to see him."

The elf nodded and returned within a second before beckoning to Arcturus, "Come." It spoke.

Arcturus simply nodded and followed it to the (or at least one of the) sitting rooms where Iliad was seated.

The Lord Greengrass rose to meet Arcturus.

The two men shook hands.

"Arcturus."

"Iliad."

*** **End of Chapter**


	43. Harry vs Daphne

*** **Present**

The door to Greengrass Manor was opened by a house elf.

"Who is it!" the house elf squeaked out.

"Tell Lord Greengrass that Arcturus Black is here to see him." Arcturus stated

The elf nodded and returned within a second before beckoning to Arcturus, "Come." It spoke.

Arcturus simply nodded and followed it to the (or at least one of the) sitting rooms where Iliad was seated.

The Lord Greengrass rose to meet Arcturus.

The two men shook hands.

"Arcturus."

"Iliad."

"Would you like a cup of tea?" the Lord Greengrass asked.

"Yes please." Arcturus said tightly, his face not betraying any emotion to the younger man.

Iliad clicked his fingers and the house elf popped into the room.

"Pringle, get the guest and I some tea." He commanded.

With a squeak of agreement, the house-elf now identified as Pringle popped away only to appear a second later with two pots of tea.

"Thank you Pringle, please continue cleaning the house." Iliad commanded before turning to his guest.

"I assume you are here to discuss our allegiance."

"That and a few…other things." Arcturus said.

"Other things?" Iliad raised a singular eyebrow.

"Like why your daughter is spying on Harry Potter or more accurately, why do you need information on Potter."

Iliad considered lying but the sharp eyes of Arcturus were trained on his own, daring him to try.

"I had to know if the light side was competent enough to fight back in the upcoming war." Iliad admitted, "You're not only fighting Voldemort, but also The Darkness. Enough of it was entered this world to be mildly sentient."

As expected, there was no surprise in Arcturus' expression, either he knew of the return of the Darkness, which Iliad was almost positive he did, or he was just pretending really well.

"And, do you find Potter to be strong enough?" Arcturus asked, his voice not betraying his curiosity, Iliad was a very astute man, his thoughts on the subject were important.

"He is certainly very intelligent and far more accomplished than I expected of a champion of Dumbledore…" Iliad began.

"But you don't think he is enough?" Arcturus enquired.

"Maybe with another few years of training, he could be strong enough to defeat Voldemort on his own, but The Darkness will only grow, and nothing less than Merlin can defeat the entirety of the Darkness." Iliad said sadly.

"So, will you side with the light side then?" Arcturus asked, cutting to the chase.

Iliad gave the Lord Black a long hard stare, "We are a neutral family…"

"But the neutrality of the world will be in danger if The Darkness takes over completely." Arcturus pointed out.

Iliad nodded grudgingly, "Yes, if required, The Greengrass family will side with the light…on one condition."

Arcturus was immediately on guard, the Greengrass family was very sneaky, "And what is that?"

"The next generation will be instrumental in this war. If the Greengrass family is to fight, then Daphne will definitely end up being heavily involved in this war… I want Daphne to join whatever training Potter and his muggleborn friend are undertaking." Iliad said determinedly, "Without that, we will not interfere in this war."

"That is easily done, tell your daughter to meet us at the Room of Requirement at 8 AM tomorrow morning." Arcturus said.

"Very well, the Greengrass Family will join the light side for the upcoming war against The Darkness." Iliad said, and his family ring shone, as his family magic accepted the decision of its head of house.

Arcturus smiled wryly, "Very good, I will keep you informed of all progressions through your daughter."

Iliad nodded his consent.

Arcturus picked up his undrunk cup of tea and sniffed it.

"Veritaserum." He said simply as he got up and strode out of the house.

"I had to try." Iliad smirked.

*** **Next Day, 8:00 AM**

"We have one more person joining us for training." Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling with mirth like they always did when he knew something they didn't.

"And who is that?" Harry said curiously.

"Me." A voice said from behind him.

Harry turned around to see Arcturus standing with none other than Daphne Greengrass.

"Greengrass." Harry breathed out.

"It appears that my father has made a deal, that I receive training with you, and in exchange, the Greengrass family will fight with the light side." Daphne said lightly, smirking at Harry and turning to Hermione.

"Granger, you need to be careful, I'm on your side now, but I'm far from the only student here at Hogwarts, waiting for you to slip a morsel of information." Daphne said.

Hermione blushed, "Yeah…" she agreed.

Arcturus cleared his throat, "Let's start with the usual warm-ups."

"Actually, before we start training, I want to fight Potter to see how good he is." Daphne said.

Arcturus looked at the girl calculatingly, she was obviously trying to gauge his strength, but Iliad was a man of his word, despite his slipperiness, so there was really no harm in it.

"I see no problem with that."

Just as Arcturus agreed, Daphne shot a spell-chain at Harry, quick as a snake.

Harry just about managed to blink before bringing up his wand to flick the attacks out of the way.

Daphne smirked before raising the ante, but Harry seemed to be able to counter everything she threw at him.

"Strong basic defence." She noted out loud, before spinning around, wand in hand, gathering the winds in a trick her father had taught her before flinging it at Harry, forming a mini tornado which swept towards the young Potter.

Harry sliced straight through the tornado with his wand, ducking out of the way of the spells that immediately followed the tornado.

"Nice trick." Harry grinned back before taking the attack to his opponent, sending waves of air and water at Daphen which she was hard-pressed to defend, waving her wand all over the place to counter the elemental attacks.

Daphne cursed, he had seemed very much at ease when they were exchanging spells but there was some semblance of equality in their skill even if he was more powerful.

In elemental magic, he was easily overpowering her with just simple attacks despite her best efforts to defend.

Harry ended the fight with a giant eagle made entirely from water and sent it rushing at Daphne who tried in vain to lift a gust of wind strong enough to fight back the attack but only slowing down its crash into her.

Daphne crashed into the wall, clearly overpowered by Harry and before she could return to her feet, a stunning spell crashed into her and she slid to the ground, defeated.

Harry grinned, "I win."

Arcturus revived the heir Greengrass who smiled slightly.

*** **End of Chapter**


	44. The First Task aka DRAGONSSS!

*** **Later**

"ARE YOU READY FOR THE FIRST TASK OF THE ONE, THE ONLY, TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT!" Ludo Bagman yelled out at the top of his magically magnified voice.

The deafening cheer that returned was definitely sufficient evidence of the audience's excitement.

Everyone had been seated in the Quidditch stadium which had been magically modified to have a large protective dome in the middle for the contestants to fight within.

Not only had students been allowed to witness the event, tickets had also been sold for others to come and watch the event.

The ticket sales were record-breaking for any non-World Cup event, even outstripping the pretty good turnouts for the British and Irish Quidditch League which had taken place earlier that year, making it the biggest European sporting event of the year.

"THE FIRST TASK WILL TEST THE BRAVERY AND METTLE OF OUR CHAMPIONS! THEY WILL HAVE TO PICK A GOLDEN EGG FROM THE NEST OF A MOTHER DRAGON!"

Once more, the cheers went through the roof. Both Fleur and Krum seemed to have known about the dragons beforehand but it was certainly a surprise to Harry, although thankfully, he and Hermione had discussed contingency plans for all of the major creatures including dragons.

The conjunctivitis curse was most likely to be effective when facing a dragon, but even a blind dragon could be dangerous, so he would have to be on guard.

"NOW, OUR CONTESTANTS MUST PICK THEIR DRAGONS! LET'S HAVE MS FLEUR DELACOUR UP HERE NOW, LADIES FIRST AFTER ALL!"

Fleur went up to Bagman's podium and picked a miniature dragon model out of a bag, getting the Welsh Green.

Krum also went up and got a Swedish Shortsnout.

"AND NOW, FOR OUR YOUNGEST CHAMPION…HARRY POTTER!"

Harry went up, the picture of calm collectedness and picked his own dragon out of the bag.

"AND HARRY POTTER HAD DRAWN THE MOST FEROCIOUS OF THEM ALL! THE HUNGARIAN HORNTAIL!"

Shit.

Harry went up to the stands to sit with Hermione to watch the first two contestants go their turns.

Fleur's plan seemed to be to try and enchant the dragon to sleep with her veela magic but it only slightly worked, apparently veela magic was most effective on humans and her aura only managed to make the dragon mildly sleepy and blink a few times.

She tried to use this to her advantage and ran quickly in a bid to get the egg before the dragon realized what she was doing, hoping her magic would slow it down enough for her to do so in time.

Unfortunately for Fleur, it wasn't, the dragon blinked off any effect of her magic when it saw its precious eggs in danger and roared loudly, breathing fire at Fleur lightly.

Angered by the dragon, Fleur turned to her veela form and fought the dragon head on.

Her veela form turned her to a large strong and scaly being with wings, allowing her to fly as well, and shoot fireballs at the dragon, taking it head on, which impressed Harry, veelas were far stronger than he had imagined.

When she had been fighting the dragon for almost a minute, her brain kicked in again, and she threw a few balls of fire, using the distraction to fly over the dragon to its eggs and taking the golden one just in time to avoid being roasted, as the golden egg was a portkey that teleported her to Bagman's podium.

For her performance, she got 42 points, getting points taking off for her injuries sustained from the dragon, which were several cuts and bruises as well as some burns which were fading very quickly due to her veela heritage.

Victor's plan seemed to be similar to Harry's.

After a few tries and a few dodges from the dragon's claws and tail, which tended to whip forward to try and strike Krum, he managed to get a conjunctivitis spell into both its eyes.

While he was trying to get to the egg, the dragon's tail smashed him into a rock.

Krum was covered in scratches and bruises but he managed to stumble to the egg.

He got awarded 40 points, losing out because of his injuries.

Harry prepared himself mentally for facing a Hungarian Horntail.

With a deep breath, he walked into the protective bubble, which could only be entered from the outside but required contestants to teleport out from the inside with the portkey to exit.

The horntail was extremely aggressive, shooting flames at Harry before he could even react otherwise.

Harry's reflex saved him, as he quickly managed to summon a wave of water through elemental magic, to counter the fire.

Harry vanished the smoke and shot off a conjunctivitis curse, before ducking to avoid the tail which had come around to smack him like the Shortsnout had done to Krum, except the Horntail's tail had…well horns which would have likely maimed Harry at the very least.

The Horntail had sharp reflexes and managed to dodge the conjunctivitis curse, moving extremely quickly for such a large being.

The dragon rose from its nest and let out a long primal roar.

Harry cursed and began shooting off more conjunctivitis curses as he quickly moved to keep avoiding the bursts of flame that emitted from the mouth of the dragon.

With a flick of the wrist, he sent a large tidal wave of water at the dragon, the sheer power of it pushing the dragon off to the left.

Harry used the opening to his advantage, running towards the golden egg.

The dragon roared and its tail came up to smack him.

In order to protect himself, Harry conjured a quick brick wall to get in the way of the tail.

The wall crumbled to bits within seconds, the large gashes in it representing what would happen to Harry if he was unfortunate enough to be hit by it.

The Horntail had come to its senses and was about to belch more fire at him but he had no time to move anywhere and standing his ground and countering with elemental magic would be even more taxing on his magic which he had all but depleted already.

With an additional spurt of speed, Harry's finger grasped the golden egg and he portkeyed out of the arena…

Into a cemetery in Little Hangleton.

*** **End of chapter**

 **An: Dun dun dun! Fav, follow, review, do stuff, I hope you enjoyed.**


	45. The return of Lord Voldemort

**An: I've been wondering how long I should make you suffer with this cliffie… let's see how long I can hold this chapter off on you guys.**

*** **Present**

The Horntail had come to its senses and was about to belch more fire at Harry but he had no time to move anywhere and standing his ground and countering with elemental magic would be even more taxing on his magic which he had all but depleted already.

With an additional spurt of speed, Harry's finger grasped the golden egg and he portkeyed out of the arena…

Into a cemetery in Little Hangleton.

Harry came to his senses just in time to block a spell from a shadowy figure.

More spells were shot at him but he was able to just about push them away from himself and return fire, despite having very little of his magical reserves available due to the large amount of magic he had expended during the fight against the dragon.

Harry created a phoenix of fire and sent it at his opponent, attacking him and hoping to identify him as well, killing two birds with one stone.

It was…

The chess guy?

Indeed, it seemed to be the representative of the ICW's chess organization who had attacked him.

The man hadn't seemed too intimidating when he'd met Harry at Hogwarts but… he still didn't seem intimidating even when attacking Harry with strength and skill he hadn't expected of the man.

The man quickly and efficiently tore through the attack of fire with a blade of air.

Harry cursed and replied with more regular spells, he didn't have enough magic left to keep sending elemental magic at his opponent.

Suddenly, Harry's opponent began to transform.

"Polyjuice Potion." Harry realized, before quickly trying to capitalize on the transformation and overpower whoever he was fighting before he/she returned to their senses.

Unfortunately for Harry, his opponent was able to set up a powerful shield to block all of Harry's spells while he recovered from the sudden transformation.

Harry ran at him, unsheathing The Sword of Potter and cutting through the shield, causing his opponent to roll out of the way and return more spells.

Harry looked over to see who his opponent really was.

Barty Crouch Jr!

But he was supposed to be... well, dead.

Crouch grinned and flicked his wand, sending a wave of water at Harry who froze it into ice before it could hit him.

Crouch caused the ice to shatter and sent the shards hurtling at Harry once more.

With a gust of fire, all of the ice was turned to steam in a second.

Harry panted with the exertion as Crouch sent a gust of wind, which he turned around and returned at his opponent.

Crouch had obviously noticed how little magic Harry had left and was using elemental magic to wear out Harry as quickly as possible.

Harry returned an onslaught of spells which Barty was barely able to counter, then moved in to strike with his sword, only to be blown off his feet by a quick wall of wind.

Harry rolled out of the way of a fireball and fought off a wall of water with a wall of fire.

Barty continued to funnel magic into his wall of water and Harry was forced to continue to funnel his magic into the fire in an attempt to protect himself.

Crouch grinned, as he increased the level of power in the water by a notch and Harry grunted as he fell to one knee, his vision going slightly blurry around the edges.

He realised there was no way he could keep it up while Barty had all his magical reserves remaining.

Harry ran behind a tombstone before letting go of his control of the fire, letting the wall of water barrel into nothing.

"You can't hide forever Potter." Crouch taunted.

Harry knew that continuing the fight would be his worst possible option right now, he had to get back to Hogwarts…

The portkey!

"Accio Portkey." Harry whispered out but the golden egg didn't budge.

Harry had faith in his magic enough to know that the egg must have an anti-summoning spell, probably to avoid cheating in the TriWizard tournament and just end the thing before you fought the dragon.

Harry cursed and ran out from behind the tombstone and began firing spells at Barty to distract him while he made a run for the cup.

Realising what he was going to do, Barty turned the dagger he was going to use to cut his arm off into a portkey that would transport Harry back and threw it at Harry.

Despite his best attempt at dodging, Harry was struck in the shoulder, but managed to yank out the thing before it activated and brought him directly in front of Barty and away from the portkey.

Despite the pain in his shoulder, Harry gritted his teeth and grabbed hold of the golden egg, and he was yanked away from the graveyard and back to Hogwarts

Barty let out a roar of frustration, his master wouldn't be revived after all.

Barty picked up the knife angrily, considering just killing himself for his failure as he knew his master would have.

Before he dug the knife into his heart, he noticed a tinge of red on the blade.

Blood.

Harry Potter's blood.

A large predatory smile spread out across Barty's face, that would worry any Child Protection Agency who knew he was thinking about the blood of a 13-year-old.

"Blood of the enemy forcibly taken…"

With a maniacal laugh, Barty began the ritual that would ultimately bring his master back to life.

He conjured up another knife to cut his arm off, making a fatal mistake with that.

You see, conjured knifes were made out of nothing therefore absorbed some of the magical properties of blood, whereas transmuted knifes, such as the one that Voldemort had painstakingly transmuted, which had taken Harry's blood, would work just fine.

As he finished the ritual by dropping Harry's almost congealed blood into the cauldron, smoke began to rise.

Voldemort began to step out of the cauldron, but his skin was burning red and he dropped to the ground immediately as he stepped out of the cauldron.

He began to have a seizure on the ground.

"Crouch, you fool!" he spat out, as blood began to leak from his nose and mouth.

"M-master." Barty stammered out.

Suddenly tendrils of darkness grabbed onto Voldemort and pinned him to the ground.

"Ah Tom…" a voice said sadly, "I had such…high hopes for you."

Voldemort struggled against his bindings, "Who dares restrain the Lord Voldemort." He rasped out.

"One much more powerful than you… one whose power you have used freely over the last few decades."

Voldemort's eyes darkened, "You are a manifestation of my magic! My books have mentioned that my magic can take on a manifestation if I truly embrace the dark arts…"

The voice laughed, "That is…one way of putting it."

"Help me, my magic, I command you." Voldemort gasped out.

"Very well then, I shall help you." The voice spoke.

Suddenly the darkness merged into Voldemort and he let out a loud scream.

"My Lord!" Barty yelled out in worry.

Voldemort rose, his skin now white as bone, clothed in a robe of darkness, similar to how he was before his fall… except for one major difference.

"Master, yo-your eyes!" Barty exclaimed.

Voldemort's pitch black eyes locked onto Barty's and his black lips twisted into a smile as he waved his hand, materialising a hand of darkness for Barty.

As he made the hand, Barty could have sworn his veins glowed dark black for a singular second.

"You have done well, Bartemius." Voldemort spoke, his voice smooth as silk and no longer raspy.

"B-but I let the Potter boy go!" Barty said.

"It matters not…we will get him eventually, now is a time to celebrate my return." Voldemort smiled, before his veins glowed black once and suddenly Barty felt his dark mark burning.

"Let's see how many of my faithful followers have stuck by me…"

*** **End of chapter**


	46. Filler! Yay!

**An: PLEASE GO CHECK OUT MY NEW BATMAN/HARRY POTTER CROSSOVER "THE HOGWARTS BAT"**

 **An2: I hope you enjoy**

 ***** Hogwarts, present**

The moment Harry Potter disappeared from the stadium and didn't appear at the podium, all hell broke loose.

All the reporters stood up in what seemed to be almost a synchronized fashion and began babbling, and the students of Hogwarts all began shouting at the top of their voices.

Arcturus was about to sonorus his voice and bring the hall to attention but before he could, Dumbledore stood up.

"SILENCEEEEEEE!" Dumbledore roared over the tremendous volume of the crowds.

In that moment, Arcturus was reminded what made Dumbledore such an impressive wizard. He didn't usually show it, but he had the ability to be one of the most commanding presences on the face of the earth.

All of the hundreds of people present immediately quietened down and looked at Dumbledore who was literally radiating power.

"It is obvious someone has rigged the golden egg, it is hard to tell who, as many people had access to it, the most important thing here is to track the portkey spell so that we can find Harry and help him, as there is no doubt some former follower of Lord Voldemort is to blame for this." Dumbledore said, not mentioning that he believed it was Voldemort himself, or even worse, The Darkness.

Arcturus nodded, "Filius, Minerva, Professor Babbling, please follow Albus and me to my office."

With that, they were off, Dumbledore already feeling into the magicks of Hogwarts to try and find the magical signature of the portkey.

Dumbledore and co spent almost fifteen minutes to half an hour figuring out the location to which the portkey had taken Harry.

Suddenly, Sprout burst into the room, "Albus, Harry Potter has returned!"

Dumbledore sprung to attention, "All of you, come with me, Pomona, bring Poppy, he may need medical attention."

"She's already there." Sprout said, and followed them, as Dumbledore strode surprisingly fast for such an old man.

*** **With Hermione**

Hermione was worried sick when Harry disappeared from the ring.

She was about to approach Professor Dumbledore but Daphne shot her a look that very clearly told her to keep sitting down.

The moment Harry reappeared, Hermione sprang to her feet and sprinted over to her best friend who had staggered a bit and collapsed to the ground, with blood streaming from his shoulder.

"HARRY!" Hermione called out for her friend.

"H-Hermione…" Harry said weakly.

The Minister who had been called in the middle of all the mayhem, along with the Head of the DMLE stepped up.

"What kind of prank is this, Potter!" Fudge blustered, likely on the suggestion of Lucius Malfoy.

"Minister! This is clearly no prank, the boy is injured, someone call the nurse, she should be over in that tent, treating the other champions." Madame Bones barked out.

Two of her aurors nodded and ran to the tent that was standing in as the infirmary.

Both the aurors started blubbering loudly.

"What seems to be the issue, is Potter back?" Pomfrey asked.

The aurors indicated that Potter was back, and Pomfrey ran out of the tent to go tend to the boy.

"Always getting in trouble…" Pomfrey muttered as she quickly patched up Harry's shoulder with some bandages to stop the bleeding after flicking her wand over the wound.

"The injury was inflicted by an alchemically transmuted object; no magic will work on this." Pomfrey said to Fudge, who was demanding she let him speak to Harry.

"Nonsense, magic can cure everything, maybe we need to call in a professional from St. Mungos." Fudge snubbed Pomfrey.

"I assure you Minister, Poppy is more than competent, and she is telling the truth. Injuries sustained from alchemy are resistant to magical intervention." Dumbledore said.

"What would you know Dumbledore."

Dumbledore's piercing blue eyes looked up at Fudge incredulously, "Do you KNOW what I am best known for?"

"Err, defeating Grindelwald?" Fudge said awkwardly.

"Other than that?"

Fudge drew a blank but Madam Bones nodded, "For your studies in Alchemy with the late Nicolas Flamel."

"Exactly." Arcturus said.

"Anyway, let me see the boy." Dumbledore spoke.

Poppy complied, much to the chagrin of the Minister, "Why does Dumbledore get to talk to the boy!"

Dumbledore waved his wand over the limp body of Harry Potter a few times, his wand lighting up with a faint glow.

"Is he going to be okay, Professor?" Hermione asked shakily.

Dumbledore put on a gentle smile, "Yes, Ms Granger, though I have no doubt he will have quite a fantastic and possibly concerning tale for us when he awakens. His magic has been exhausted, and his fight with the Horntail could not have resulted in the usage of so much magic. He clearly dueled somebody wherever he went."

Hermione's eyes widened, "He dueled someone! After the fight with the dragon!"

Dumbledore nodded gravely, "Whoever it was knew he would already be exhausted, but he likely didn't know the extent of Harry's power, and that very power allowed him to get away with his life."

Hermione paled before she hugged her unconscious friend tightly.

*** **Later, Dumbledore's office**

"It is highly likely Voldemort has returned." Harry said.

Dumbledore's eyes widened but Arcturus' eyes narrowed.

"Likely…what is causing you doubt."

"I didn't see him with my own eyes, but it was Barty Crouch Jr who fought me, and he murmured of a ritual that would bring back his master…"

"Junior! Isn't he dead?" Hermione asked.

"He is supposed to be." Dumbledore agreed.

"Trust me, I saw him." Harry said.

"Give me the pensieve memory, I will examine it later." Dumbledore said.

Harry nodded and did as the older wizard had asked.

"Since Crouch, or whoever it was, captured you, he likely needed you for the ritual to take place" Arcturus reasoned.

Harry shook his head grimly, "He needed my blood, he said it."

"Your blood, he didn't get any of that, did he?" Hermione asked.

"Think Granger, your friend turned up with a shoulder wound." Daphne spoke for the first time.

Hermione's mouth fell open and Harry nodded his head grimly.

"Yes, I pulled out the knife, I had to, it was a portkey which would pull me back there."

"We can always hope that he didn't realise, right?" Hermione said hopefully, "Maybe he will assume that he can't go through with the ritual because he doesn't have you."

"That's where the element of doubt comes in, but still, Crouch is a smart man, there's no way he would miss something like that. We have to prepare for the worst." Arcturus said.

"Well, there's a more pertinent issue as well." Daphne said.

"What could be more pertinent than the return of the Dark Lord!" Hermione said.

"What do we tell the press…"

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Please, please, please check out my new story 'The Hogwarts Bat' if you have any interest in Batman or Harry Potter (you probably like Harry Potter, if you're reading this)**

 **It is a crossover story where Bruce goes to Hogwarts in the Marauders era. I'm pretty stoked on it so…check it out!**

 **PxFive out.**


	47. Meeting Rita

*** **Present**

"What could be more pertinent than the return of the Dark Lord?" Hermione asked.

"What do we tell the press…" Arcturus said.

Dumbledore let out a little laugh but Arcturus was serious.

"We have to placate Fudge before he slanders our name, then release the evidence that we do have to the Prophet, otherwise, we won't be taken seriously. The Minister will push all his clout behind defaming us." Arcturus said.

Dumbledore frowned, "Cornelius is harmless."

"No Albus. Because of your willingness to believe in the good in him, you're not seeing what he truly is. He's afraid. He would do anything to avoid such a scandal in his term, including sticking his head in the sand and murdering you politically." Arcturus said.

At that very moment, Fudge burst into the room, "What is going on with the Potter boy!?"

"Ah Cornelius, we're glad you came." Arcturus said smoothly.

"Yes, Lord Black." Cornelius said, trying to suck up to Arcturus.

"Harry was kidnapped by a crazed and delusional follower of the deceased Dark Lord." Arcturus said, "The Dark Lord isn't back but some man had a delusion that he could bring him back by murdering Harry. Harry managed to duel him to a standstill, suggesting that he was a weaker man, and then managed to grab the portkey back to Hogwarts."

"Who was it!" Fudge said, completely buying it.

"We don't know, he was wearing the Death Eater uniform and Harry was unable to identify him." Arcturus lied deftly, thinking it too inconvenient to explain to the Minister that a dead Death Eater buried in Azkaban was actually alive and with the Dark Lord.

He would find out soon enough anyway.

With a few more placating answers, the Minister was sent away and the real business started.

"You can come out now, Rita." Arcturus said.

Harry and Hermione both looked surprised but Dumbledore also seemed privy to the presence of the reporter.

Nothing happened for a second, and Harry wondered if his two mentors were wrong this once, but then, quick as lightning, Arcturus flicked his wand and a bug on the wall transformed into the form of the vicious reporter and fell to the ground with a shriek.

The reporter immediately tried to exit the room but found the door to be locked.

"You can't escape Rita." Dumbledore said simply.

"I- I will sue you for kidnapping." Rita said desperately.

"And I'll sue you for invading private property and being an unregistered animagus… and I'm allowed to detain criminals until their trials due to my Order of Merlin 1st Class." Dumbledore said, his voice cold and threatening, the cushy and comfortable aura of the Headmaster suddenly turning to a far more serious and intimidating aura.

"What do you want." Rita spat.

"Voldemort has returned." Dumbledore said simply.

"B-But I heard your talk with the Minister! Don't lie to me Dumbledore."

"I had to give the Minister a story he liked otherwise he would kill me in the media before the world got to know of the return of the Dark Lord." Dumbledore said, "You may view young Harry's memory in the pensieve."

They all viewed the memory once more, before the pensieve shot them out again.

Rita was white as a sheet, "I can't print that…" she said shakily, "The Ministry won't like it, they won't like it at all…"

"Isn't it your job to relay the news to all the people of Britain!" Hermione shot, "What kind of corrupt reporter are you!?"

Arcturus smiled thinly, ignoring Hermione outright, "I think you're forgetting, we know your biggest secret Rita."

Her eyes widened, "You can't tell anyone!" she said urgently, "My entire career would fall in on itself like a house of cards!"

"Exactly." Arcturus said smugly, "So you write our _completely truthful_ article and we don't destroy your career."

Skeeter stood up to her full height and glared at Arcturus who simply stared back.

After a few seconds, she sighed, defeated and turned to exit the room.

Just as she was about to exit the room, she spun around with the obliviate spell half out of her mouth before she found her wand in Arcturus' hands, with both Dumbledore and Harry having their wands out, and Hermione in the process of drawing hers.

"I had to try." She said simply, retrieving her wand from Dumbledore and walking out of the door for real this time."

"She was going for you." Arcturus observed, "She thought she could beat me." He stated.

Dumbledore smiled wanly, "You are an old man, my friend."

"As are you, Dumbledore."

"Ah, but you have not been able to garner quite the reputation I have among the masses." Dumbledore said.

"Well, now what?" Harry asked.

"Now, my boy, you get back to classes." Dumbledore said playfully, "You've missed a fair few in your recovery."

Suddenly Hermione burst into action, "Ah Harry! I've collected all the homework you've missed; I can help you with it! Also, I've taken copies of my notes so that you can study them with me! Also, the second task will be coming up and you need to figure out what exactly the egg is." Hermione started on Harry.

"Hermione, you _know_ that we're both already far ahead of most subjects." Harry said.

"Yeah, but we don't know all the details of what is taught in class." Hermione argued, "It's important to know all the theory."

"Anyway, I think it's more important to focus on the TriWizard tournament." Harry said before looking towards his mentors, "Any advice?"

Arcturus shared a glance with Dumbledore, "Normally, I wouldn't help you out with information like this, because Albus and I want you to do this yourself, but in this case, I think we need you to dedicate a lot of your time to training, we will tell you…Albus, tell him."

"You must listen to the egg underwater." Dumbledore said, "There will be a message in mermish, but the gist of it is that you will have to retrieve another object, one that will aid you in the final task if you retrieve it, from inside the lake."

*** **end of chapter**


	48. Iliad vs Voldemort

**An: Thanks for 850 follows on TIP!**

 ***** Greengrass Manor**

Iliad Greengrass felt a domineering force batter against his wards. If they had been almost any other wards, they would have collapsed immediately under the pressure being applied on them, but Greengrass Manor already had some of the best wards in England, and that was before Iliad had added the latest and best in warding technology a few years back.

Still, the force kept battering against his wards.

Even his wards would only last him another few minutes before they fell to the unassailing power that was assaulting them.

He ran up the stairs to his bedroom, "Ophelia! We need to get out of here."

Iliad's wife blinked at him, "What?"

"Our wards are being attacked." Iliad said shortly.

Ophelia goggled at her husband, "Surely we can't be in immediate danger, our wards are some of the strongest in Britain!"

"I imagine the Darkness has something to do with this." Iliad said urgently.

Ophelia paled, "How much time do we have?"

"Minutes by the looks of it. Apparition is blocked, try the portkeys." Iliad said.

Ophelia nodded and tried the innocuous key on her bedside with no luck.

"We have to get to _the room._ " Iliad said urgently before he heard loud crashing and his wards gave up completely.

Lord Voldemort entered the home of the Greengrass family, covered in armor of darkness from head to toe, with tendrils of the stuff gathering around him.

Despite the aid of the Darkness, Voldemort was still sweating with exertion, having used a large amount of his energy to overpower the wards as fast as he possibly could, the Greengrasses were slimy and would escape quickly if given even just a single opportunity to.

"Iliad Greengrass." He rasped out, backed up by a dozen of his strongest followers.

When no reply came immediately, Voldemort apparated onto the top floor of the Manor, noticing Iliad fleeing, with his back turned.

Voldemort sent a sealing spell at the door but not in time to stop Iliad's wife from escaping the Manor.

Only slightly discontented, Voldemort turned to the remaining Greengrass, who had turned to look at him.

If the Lord Greengrass was even the slightest bit scared, he didn't show it on his face.

"Lord Voldemort." He said respectfully.

"Hello Iliad…" Voldemort rasped out, his fingers tapping a restless rhythm on his wand, "I have come here for a singular purpose…you have a chance to exit this manor _alive_."

Iliad seemed momentarily surprised before his blank cold expression took over again, "How may I help you today, my Lord?" he asked meekly, backing towards the door.

"Don't try to escape Iliad, it won't work." Voldemort said mockingly, "Come forward, accept me as your master and you will survive this night."

Iliad walked forward shakily and bent down on one knee, "My Lord?"

Voldemort smirked, "You think it would be that easy? I know you made a deal with Dumbledore…to earn my favor you must take my mark or die."

Iliad's expression tightened ever so slightly before his body language reflected a position of defeat.

Voldemort's smile widened at the defeated form of Iliad Greengrass, he would be a formidable ally indeed, with him onboard, Dumbledore and his entourage stood no chance of standing up to the forces of the Dark.

"Give me your arm Iliad." Voldemort hissed.

Iliad shakily raised one arm.

As Voldemort went to draw his wand once again to brand his mark onto his newest servant, Iliad slid his own wand out of his sleeve and into his hand in an instant, a deep red spell shooting out of it before Voldemort could even react.

It was at point blank range, there was no way Voldemort would be able to block it…

Voldemort's armor rose to protect his face, tendrils of Darkness flicking around to push Iliad away, making him stumble into a wall.

"Fool! You think you could stand against me?!"Voldemort roared out, and tendrils of Darkness began to attack Iliad, "Death Eaters! Stay behind, Greengrass is _mine!"_

With great precision, Iliad sent several jabs of elemental magic flying at his opponent, moving out of the way of the tendrils of Darkness and sending spikes of fire to combat them.

"You will never escape!" Voldemort rasped, sending an unassailable wave of Darkness at Iliad who grunted as he was unable to stop the blow and was sent flying into another wall as a result.

Iliad spat out a gob of blood and began the fight of his life.

Voldemort was clearly playing and for the most part didn't even make use of the powers of the Darkness, sticking to his own magic but still dominating the fight with the Lord Greengrass, whose fighting skills were really being put to the test.

Voldemort sent a wall of fire at Iliad who twisted towards the door that Voldemort had sealed, standing right in front of it and protecting himself with the best shield he could muster.

The force of the wall of fire pushed him into the door and burned the sealed door straight off the wall, breaking a fair bit of the wall, which sent a decent part of the left wing of the Manor collapsing due to the loss of support.

With the minor distraction, Iliad cast a transfiguration spell behind himself turning the rubble into walls to get into Voldemort's way.

The Dark Lord roared with anger and began to tear his way through to Iliad.

Unfortunately for him, he was too late.

Iliad reached the warp room just before Voldemort reached him and closed the door on that.

As Voldemort began to brute-force the wards on the room which were separate to the rest of the manor, Iliad activated his emergency portkey.

Due to the separate warding scheme, general blocks and wards placed on the main Manor were of no effect here, and the small stone that served as his portkey pulled him away right before Voldemort destroyed the door of the Manor and entered.

*** **Dumbledore's office, Hogwarts**

Iliad arrived in a pop in the office of the Headmaster.

Ophelia was sitting in a cushy armchair transfigured by Dumbledore, sipping a hot chocolate, as if she were a traumatized student.

To be expected of a school teacher, he assumed.

Dumbledore himself was nowhere to be seen.

"Iliad!" Ophelia cried out in relief, getting up to hug her husband tightly.

"Where is Dumbledore?"

"Albus and Arcturus are planning a retrieval mission for you." Ophelia said, "Go stop them, now you're here, they're in the room of requirement."

Iliad rushed to the 7th floor with his wife to stop the rescue party.

He met Dumbledore and Arcturus just as they were leaving.

Arcturus raised an eyebrow, "You escaped Voldemort?"

"Just about." Iliad said, gesturing to his battered state.

"Still better than I had gotten away with in our last fight." Arcturus spoke with respect in his voice.

"He was clearly playing with me; his power has easily doubled with his call on the Darkness." Iliad said, despairingly, with the level of power he has…we don't stand a chance."

*** **End of Chapter**


	49. Iliad meets Harry

*** **Present**

Iliad rushed to the 7th floor with his wife to stop the rescue party.

He met Dumbledore and Arcturus just as they were leaving.

Arcturus raised an eyebrow, "You escaped Voldemort?"

"Just about." Iliad said, gesturing to his battered state.

"Still better than I had gotten away with in our last fight." Arcturus spoke with respect in his voice.

"He was clearly playing with me; his power has easily doubled with his call on the Darkness." Iliad said, despairingly, with the level of power he has…we don't stand a chance."

Dumbledore frowned slightly, "It will be a hard journey ahead but we will succeed." He said with determination.

Despite himself, Iliad felt a little bit of his usual confidence return at the words of the old man.

"Besides, we have a few things up our sleeves as well." Arcturus smirked.

Iliad smiled shakily, "As expected of the Lord Black."

"There is also a positive to be drawn from this." Dumbledore said.

Iliad raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.

Prior to this, the return of Voldemort was entirely down to conjecture but by attacking you, Voldemort has overextended and revealed his existence and the extent of his recovery to us."

Iliad frowned, "But I thought that you had definitive evidence of his existence from Potter."

"Harry left before the ritual was completed." Albus corrected, "but at the time of his leaving, all the tools required to resurrect Voldemort were present, therefore we thought it best to work under the assumption that Voldemort had returned."

Arcturus inclined his head, "Voldemort has another secret up his sleeve too, and it's time we told you, despite Albus' misgivings, he has created horcruxes."

Iliad paled, "No. No, no no."

"It's true."

"HOURCRUXES! As in multiple!?"

"7 to be exact." Dumbledore said grimly.

Iliad rubbed his eyes, "Do we know what they are or where they are?" he asked slowly.

"Well, we've made a good start already, Harry destroyed the first horcrux in his second year here at Hogwarts." Dumbledore said, "And we already have ideas of where the 2nd one could be." He continued reassuringly.

*** **Later**

Before dinner that night, Dumbledore announced the return of Voldemort to the rest of the school, feeling it best to tell the rest of the school before it came in the news the next day and chaos broke out.

He peered at the panicking students before taking a deep breath, putting a hand on his wand to channel magic and yelling out, "SILENCE!" immediately drawing the attention of all of the panicking students who stilled to look at the Headmaster as magic thickened around him till it was almost palpable.

Dumbledore's aura was one of hope and warmth that brought confidence to the students.

"In the times of peril that are no doubt to come," he began, his piercing blue eyes seeming to cut to the soul of every student in the hall at the same time, "if we stand together in unity, we **will** be able to weather the storm." He continued before taking a pause to regard his stunned audience.

"And you will all find that help is always given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." He finished before stepping back and waving his arms extravagantly, summoning food to the tables.

*** **The Next Morning, Great Hall, Hogwarts**

Harry opened the paper to find not only what he already knew of the return of Voldemort, featuring excerpts from his memories in the form of Wizarding pictures that he assumed were extracted by Voldemort, but also further proof in the form of a testimony by the Greengrass Lord, Iliad, who had been attacked by Voldemort further confirming the return of the Dark Lord.

Harry rushed to Dumbledore, dragging a confused Hermione, who had just walked into the hall for breakfast, along with him.

"Good Morning Harry." The Headmaster greeted genially.

"Professor! Have you seen what happened to Iliad Greengrass!" Harry started.

Dumbledore opened his mouth to reply, but Harry steamrolled on, in a manner reminiscent to Hermione, "Voldemort attacked him and he could do it again, he's allied with us, right? You have to protect him!"

"Harry!" Dumbledore cut into Harry's rambling, "Iliad is here at Hogwarts, he arrived here immediately, this is where he escaped to."

"Oh." Harry said, "He's Daphne's dad right, I'd bet she'd like to meet him."

Dumbledore gave a mischievous smile, "Who says she hasn't already?"

Harry's mouth opened, "You mean-"

"Yes Harry, Iliad insisted he see Daphne last night, I organized a room for her in the guest suite that Iliad is currently occupying."

Harry hmmed, "I'd like to meet him." He stated, giving Dumbledore a meaningful look.

"After breakfast, Harry." Dumbledore said good-naturedly, before turning to talk to McGonagall, who had been conspicuously listening in on Dumbledore's conversation with Harry, effectively dismissing Harry and Hermione.

*** **After Breakfast, Iliad's Suite, Hogwarts**

Harry beelined to Dumbledore, getting him to take Hermione and himself to Iliad's suite immediately as breakfast ended.

Daphne had not showed up for breakfast, Harry assumed she had breakfast along with her father in his suite.

One of Daphne's friends, a Tracey Davis, asked them where she was in the middle of the meal, further solidifying his belief that she was with her father, as Tracy generally seemed to know exactly where Daphne was at all times.

Presently, Dumbledore led Harry and Hermione to Iliad's suite, which was guarded by a portrait of an old lady, who shared a few features with Daphne, something which Harry didn't miss.

In response to Harry's unasked question, Dumbledore responded, "I thought it would be fitting for Iliad to stay in a suite protected by his own great-grandmother."

Harry noted the fact mentally before walking into the suite, after Dumbledore gave the woman the password.

Iliad Greengrass looked up from the newspaper he had been reading, "Harry Potter." He said as a greeting, "It is good to finally meet you," at that, Iliad raised a hand, which Harry grasped, shaking the hand of the Greengrass Lord.

"Same here, Lord Greengrass." Harry said respectfully.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Sorry for the delay between chapters.**


	50. Harry vs Iliad

**An: Chapter 50! I didn't think I'd make it even half this far, and this story has really evolved from what I envisioned a year and a half ago. Thanks to everybody who keeps on reading and enjoy the fiftieth chapter of The Intelligent Potter.**

 ***** Present**

Presently, Dumbledore led Harry and Hermione to Iliad's suite, which was guarded by a portrait of an old lady, who shared a few features with Daphne, something which Harry didn't miss.

In response to Harry's unasked question, Dumbledore responded, "I thought it would be fitting for Iliad to stay in a suite protected by his own great-grandmother."

Harry noted the fact mentally before walking into the suite, after Dumbledore gave the woman the password.

Iliad Greengrass looked up from the newspaper he had been reading, "Harry Potter." He said as a greeting, "It is good to finally meet you," at that, Iliad raised a hand, which Harry grasped, shaking the hand of the Greengrass Lord.

"Same here, Lord Greengrass." Harry said respectfully.

"Morning, Harry." Daphne acknowledged him with a smile from the other side of the table, where she had been sitting, clearly in conversation with her father.

Harry waved back to his now-friend in response.

Iliad gestured to the half-eaten breakfast on the table, which had been served in communal dishes as there were two of them rather than on single plates, "Would you like some?"

Harry refused politely, "Thanks for the offer, but I've eaten already."

Iliad smiled, "As per my agreement with The Lord Black," he started, "You have been training with my daughter, am I right?" he asked, almost rhetorically.

Harry inclined his head to the question as Iliad continued, "how would you rate the performance of my daughter in combat ability?" he asked, turning his chair, which seemed to slide along the ground, possibly due to magic.

Harry blinked, caught off-guard by the question, while Daphne herself looked slightly awkward, the first time Harry had seen any sort of crack in her mask.

"Well…" he begun, "Daphne is a highly capable duelist, who is far above the standard of the best of Hogwarts' duelers."

Iliad hmmed, apparently dissatisfied by the response, or so his slight frown would seem to have indicated.

"And How would you feel she stacks up against the under-15 worldwide dueling champion?" Iliad asked wryly.

Harry let out an awkward chuckle, "My wide variety of techniques was too much for her to possibly overcome despite her skill." He chose to answer.

"He means to say he kicked my ass." Daphne said, unusually bluntly relative to her regular behavior.

It seemed that she was far more open when around her father, Harry noted, it seemed that he did not know Daphne all that well, now that he really thought about it.

Iliad raised his eyes in a small show of surprise, "Really? Well, maybe a demonstration is in order." He said, brushing nonexistent crumbs off his shirt.

"Are you sure this is the time, Iliad?" Dumbledore asked in slight exasperation from behind Harry, "You dueled Lord Voldemort not 10 hours ago, and now you want to engage in another pointless fight."

Iliad waved it off, "I got away from that fight without serious injury, I can handle a duel with a 14-year-old."

"Very well," Dumbledore sighed, "Follow me, I shall take you both to one of Hogwarts' dueling chambers."

Dumbledore led them all to a large room which Harry had not seen prior to that day.

"You may spar here," Dumbledore said simply before turning to Iliad, "Do not underestimate Harry." He warned before waving his wand a few times to set up protective barriers for the audience, which consisted of Hermione, Daphne and himself.

Harry started, going hard from the very beginning, his spells flying viciously at his enemy, who simply waved them off with simple flicks of his wand in a fairly typical commencement of his duels.

Unlike most of his opponents, Iliad continued to fight with the same strategy slowly increasing his rate of fire, as if to judge Harry's exact level.

Harry decided not to simply keep up his futile barrage of spells, beginning to mix it up, transfiguring the floor under Iliad into quicksand, which the Greengrass Lord dealt with deftly by flicking his wand to control the substance, using it to quickly propel himself towards Harry, his wand swiping hard as it sent several beams of differently-colored light flying at Harry, who rolled out of the way, more awkwardly than he would've liked, landing wrong on his right ankle, sending a spike of pain through it, and possibly twisting it as well, reducing Harry's mobility in the duel.

By contrast, Iliad landed with grace appropriate of a man of his stature, turning swiftly and once again training his wand on Harry, who grunted slightly but continued his assault on Iliad, this time calling upon the elements to bombard the older man.

Harry sent a gust of wind which almost took Iliad by surprise, the Greengrass Lord responding at the last minute by deflecting the gust by drawing up with own barrier of stone, rising up from the ground.

In response to the air assault, Iliad responded by materializing water which flew at Harry, freezing into dangerous jagged shards of ice which melted upon reaching a 10-meter radius of Harry as he summoned fire to circle him in defense to Iliad's water-based offense.

In a decision to fight fire with fire, Iliad sent a fire serpent which flew at Harry, who directed his own ring of fire to leave his side and wrap around the serpent, squeezing it into nothingness.

Iliad continued his barrage of spells, forcing Harry to pull up a shield, due to his ankle-caused lack of mobility, much to his own distaste.

Shields were unreliable, and easy to overpower, as Iliad illustrated by creating cracks in the screen between him and Harry in a split second, time Harry took to hobble out from behind the shield that shattered just as he moved out of its path, saving him just in time.

Gasping for breath, Harry returned fire to Iliad, but he was at a clear disadvantage, as Iliad didn't seem to want to press the advantage he had over the younger duelist, presumably to test his skills and endurance.

With a grunt, Harry continued his assault with a whip of fire, which he swung at Iliad, who flicked his wand, dissipating the fire simply by sending a powerful gust of air at the weak creation.

Iliad raised his eyebrows, looking slightly unimpressed, and looked like he was about to comment on Harry's performance before curbing himself and continuing with the duel, this time far more viciously, apparently having decided he'd seen all of the young Potter's skills.

Harry waved his wand in a huge circle, creating a circle of whirling air around him in a small emulation of a tornado, before expelling it outward, blowing Iliad, and all the debris from their battle away.

Harry shot a numbing spell at his ankle with a grimace, before drawing The Sword of Potter, which remained hidden under his robes at all times, ever since his kidnapping by Voldemort, and charging at the slightly disoriented Iliad, who shot several spells at him, which Harry deflected from his sword, showing the improved skill with the weapon he had trained by training the past few months, with Arcturus, who was a master of the art.

Iliad realized the danger of letting Harry get close to him a tad late, sending out a desperate gust of air himself to halt Harry, but failing, when his enemy, ready for that response, fought back with his own gust of air, fighting it long enough to get close to Iliad, and swipe at his chest, missing as the Greengrass Lord gracefully took a step back, and raised a foot, kicking at the sword in an attempt to knock it out of Harry's hand, almost succeeding as Harry was unprepared for a physical assault, ready for his sword to absorb any magical assault upon his person.

Luckily for him, Harry managed to keep his hold on his sword, though just barely, and swung once again, this time stopped by a wall of diamond which had been built in front of him by Iliad just to block the swing.

Harry pulled his sword free, and sent a bombarda at the diamond, only to find it had been a trap all along, as Iliad banished the shards back at Harry, who grunted as he was hit in the leg by one he didn't manage to stop with his late gust of air.

Iliad didn't stop there either, he kept going, making sure to be pushing Harry back at all times, making sure not to let Harry get close enough to try assaulting him a sword once again.

Harry panted with exertion at his magic-intense duel with Iliad, who didn't seem to have tired yet, going strong on his offense, the young Potter's magical core, despite being massive for his age, still not comparing to Iliad's large trained magical reserves.

With a final swipe, Iliad managed to send Harry spinning into a wall, sending a stunner to officially end the duel.

*** **End of Chapter**


	51. Training with Iliad

**An: 1000 Follows.**

 **Woah.**

 **Thanks.**

 **Enjoy.**

 ***** Present**

Harry pulled his sword free from Iliad's conjured wall of diamond, and sent a bombarda at the diamond, only to find it had been a trap all along, as Iliad banished the shards back at Harry, who grunted as he was hit in the leg by one he didn't manage to stop with his late gust of air.

Iliad didn't stop there either, he kept going, making sure to be pushing Harry back at all times, making sure not to let Harry get close enough to try assaulting him a sword once again.

Harry panted with exertion at his magic-intense duel with Iliad, who didn't seem to have tired yet, going strong on his offense, the young Potter's magical core, despite being massive for his age, still not comparing to Iliad's large trained magical reserves.

With a final swipe, Iliad managed to send Harry spinning into a wall, sending a stunner to officially end the duel.

Harry came to to the sight of Iliad's proffered hand, which he took, helping himself up, wincing slightly as his weight came to rest on his injured ankle.

"Good fight." He said to the Lord Greengrass.

Iliad looked at Harry calculatingly, "Good fight." He replied evenly.

"Was I…yaknow, up to expectations?" Harry said uncertainly at the look of scrutiny he was getting from Iliad.

The Lord Greengrass sighed, "Yes and no."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"As a 13-year-old," Iliad began, "You are far ahead of any level feasibly expected from any student, even a 7th year and would likely beat many auror trainees, especially with the wide range of magics that have been taught to you by Albus and Arcturus." He continued before hesitating, "However, I fear that you will not be ready to face the Dark Lord anytime soon, you wouldn't have stood a chance at the height of his previous power, but with The Darkness on his side, well, let's just say, any chance you ever had has marginalized significantly."

"It will be a long war" Dumbledore said, standing up and walking over to Harry, "And we will all be there to support him," at this he put his hand on the last Potter's shoulder, radiating comfort.

"The final battle will not be for years to come," Arcturus said, "It is regrettable that Harry has to face the Dark Lord at all, but if and when he does, he will be fully prepared."

Iliad objected almost immediately, "But even the likes of Albus and yourself would stand next to no chance against The Dark Lord and The Darkness, with your decades of experience and training."

"At 13, Harry can fight a fully grown wizard head on," Arcturus said, "by the time he reaches his age of majority, his magical core will be unprecedentedly large, he was destined to fight Voldemort on equal footing, he will not go into the battle short of magical capability." He said with an air of finality.

"You would rely on the prophecy?" Iliad said with slight contempt, "I truly thought you were smarter than that Black."

"Relying on the prophecy?" Arcturus barked back, "Do you SEE us relying on the prophecy? Does the training which allowed the boy to take on a fully grown wizard seem like RELYING on the prophecy?! We are doing our best, Iliad, and HOPING that all the cards will fall in place!" Arcturus said, letting loose of his magic, letting it envelop the room, flowing out of the Lord Black in a steady stream, making the already intimidating figure of the Lord Black even more so.

Iliad glared back at the Lord Black, his pride unwilling to let him back down from the standoff.

He was cut off by Dumbledore just as he opened his mouth to speak, "Enough! Arcturus, Iliad, we can't be squabbling like children! We have to prepare for what is to come, and fighting about it isn't helping anybody. We are not relying on the prophecy to carry us through this, which is why we need your help Iliad, Harry may have to be the one to defeat Voldemort, but he sure as _hell_ doesn't have to be the only one fighting."

Arcturus' magic retreated into its master's body as quickly as it had filled the room.

After a few cold seconds, Iliad also sighed, "Albus is right, we can't be wasting our time like this."

With that the Lord Greengrass walked back into the dueling arena and beckoned Harry, "Come boy, again!"

Harry frowned slightly, indicating his ankle wordlessly.

"You don't always get to fight in ideal conditions, and besides, I'm coming off a duel too." Iliad said dismissively.

Dumbledore moved to stop the duel but Harry waved him off.

"No, I have to do this." Harry said, determinedly.

Iliad grinned, "That's what I'm talking about!" he said before starting the duel at top-notch, letting fire and water fly in equal amounts at his younger opponent with reckless abandon, peppering Harry with spells, who grit his teeth as the numbing spell on his ankle began to wear off at all of the pressure he was forced to put on it to evade Iliad's attacks.

Harry responded to the assault by fighting back once more, incorporating all forms of magic that he knew into the battle but to no end.

Iliad simply outclassed Harry in every way, but he didn't let that get to him, fighting to the best of his abilities, despite the circumstances.

No matter how valiant the struggle though, Harry was overpowered, taking another stunner to the chest, only to be revived and given to the count of ten before Iliad started the duel again, unforgivably refusing to let up on Harry.

In the stands, Hermione was distraught at the blatant abuse Harry was taking in his battles with Iliad, and even Daphne was flinching slightly, uncomfortable with the amount of pain her father was ruthlessly inflicting on Harry, seemingly without a care in the world.

After their 5th duel, Dumbledore finally intervened as Harry attempted to get to his feet, barely succeeding, and just about managing to hold onto his wand, having taken a cutting hex to the arm.

"Enough is enough, Iliad" Dumbledore said firmly, "No amount of training means anything if you kill the boy, and I think we need to have a talk about your methods."

Iliad agreed grudgingly, letting Dumbledore take Harry to the infirmary.

 ***** End of Chapter**


	52. ICW Meeting

**An: I think I've said I had no excuse once before. Well, I kinda do now but elaboration is for dummies… yeah I dunno what I'm saying anymore either. I guess, just insert groveling apology here as well as some disbelief that there are still people who read this stuff somehow. Enjoy the chapter!**

 ***** International Confederation of Wizards Conference, Ottawa, Canada**

With Voldemort's return closely followed by the raid on Greengrass Manor, the public had been frenzied into a panic, while this level of openness may not have been exactly in Voldemort's plans, and gave the Ministry time to prepare for the almost-certainly oncoming war, it did serve to send the Wizarding World of Britain into a mood much like the previous war with Voldemort.

Albus himself was finding himself increasingly busy fighting for aid for Britain's plight against Voldemort on the international stage, using his many positions to the advantage of their political situation, which had been worsened significantly by the country's political leadership over the last couple years and the way they had handled the previous war with Voldemort, where they had all but crumbled at the hands of the Dark Lord and a tiny army.

As Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Albus held a significant amount of power on the international stage, which was precisely why he found himself on the pedestal, speaking on behalf of his own country, rather than in his position as Supreme Mugwump.

Albus cleared his throat, "For the span of my speech, I yield my position of Supreme Mugwump temporarily to The Delegate of Nigeria, Mr Babajide Akingbade."

Akingbade nodded his consent and spoke up, "As Supreme Mugwump, I call upon Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore to speak on behalf of The British Ministry of Magic."

Albus smiled at Akingbade, "Thank you Supreme Mugwump Akingbade, I would like to start by calling upon all of you to remember the terror caused by the first regime of Lord Voldemort. Not only did his reign threaten Britain and it's Ministry of Magic, but he showed every intention of extending his dominion into Europe and the rest of the world, and showed no intention to comply with the regulations of this international body."

At this, a hand was raised, that of the Brazilian Delegate, Nicolau Moutinho.

Akingbade called upon Moutinho to speak.

"With all due respect, Mr Dumbledore," began Moutinho, "How does Lord Voldemort really pose a threat to the rest of the world, all that The Delegation of Brazil has observed from the first 'reign' of Voldemort, as you call it, is an astonishing level of incompetence on behalf of the British Ministry of Magic, and a lucky break, being saved by a child."

The question created murmurs amongst the rest of the delegates present at the meeting, with some looking to be in agreement with Moutinho's position.

Akingbade did not seem to be very content with Moutinho's clear statement of intent, but couldn't do much except yield back to Albus, in his current position functioning as the temporary Supreme Mugwump.

"Voldemort poses a very real threat to the entire world, his strength is unprecedented, and he has already proven to be individually far stronger than many of the Wizarding World's strongest wizards and witches, including myself." Albus said strongly, causing heavy murmuring to break out once more, as many people in the room knew of Albus' magical prowess.

Some, like Moutinho didn't seem convinced.

The Brazilian Delegate simply muttered, "You are but a retired general, posing as a school-teacher and resting on the laurels of past victories."

"That may be," Albus said, not denying the scathing words of the Brazilian Delegate despite the obvious outrage on behalf of the entire Confederation, even those on Moutinho's side, at the slight to Albus, "but Voldemort's power outstrips every other individual in Britain too, and not only that, in his fall into the Dark Arts, he has become a vessel of The Darkness, it is not just a Dark Lord that we are fighting now, but a portion of The Darkness, small it may be, but insignificant it is not, and the more we allow it to fester, the more it will grow to a point where it may just end up being impossible for the combined might of the Wizarding World to be unable to take on the opposing force. We must strike early, while The Darkness' presence is still small enough that we are fighting a fight that can be won."

At mentions of The Darkness, it was almost like a shadow seemed to fall over the entire room.

The nervousness felt by the delegates was palpable, but Albus continued to stare piercingly at the delegates.

Moutinho chose to speak again, "If what you say is really true, then past experience shows that The British Ministry cannot be trusted to spearhead such an important operation, especially in the weakened state that they are in after the previous war against Voldemort."

Albus spoke again, "The British Ministry knows it cannot handle this threat alone, which is why I am here asking for aid in the form of magical might to help combat the forces of Voldemort, as they will undoubtedly fall into old patterns, fighting a war of attrition via raids on magical hotspots over the country, leading up to a seize of power, the likes of which The British Ministry is ill-equipped to combat without reinforcements from our international allies. We agree with your assessment which is why we are here. If you believe we cannot be trusted on our own, then do as we ask, send us Brazilian battalions which can help combat the forces of Voldemort. Brazilian battlefield-healers are unparalleled the world over, The British Ministry would appreciate their aid." Albus finished strongly, moving a large amount of his audience with his apparent humility and ability to accept his weaknesses, the likes of which had never been seen with The Fudge Administration or indeed any British Administration of late.

Moutinho smirked, Dumbledore had played right into his hands, "No, you misunderstand me, Mr Dumbledore, I believe that The British Ministry is not capable of managing their own country in these troubling times, I believe it would be best for the ICW to take temporary leadership of the country until such time as this conflict is over or this body deems the British able to take leadership of their own country once again."

There was a huge uproar after Moutinho's statement, both in support of him and against him, though it was hard to tell which.

Albus felt a feeling of cold dread encroach upon himself.

"That procedure would be encroaching upon Britain's sovereignty." Albus said with a sense of finality, "The British Ministry would not accept such extreme measures and neither would the British people, and it would be against the ICW code of conduct until and unless an emergency is declared."

"I think that the possibility of a war with The Darkness is plenty cause for a declaration of emergency." Moutinho said.

The rest of the committee devolved into Albus having to fight for Britain's autonomy, but unfortunately for his case, Magical Brazil was incredibly influential, being the leader of the entirety of Magical South America, and the MACUSA was always a bit sore about the entire colonization thing, apparently sore enough to support an ICW administration over Britain.

However, Albus himself was quite influential, influential enough that along with the support of Magical Europe, Britain was likely to survive such an outrageous proposal.

Too late did Albus realize, that installing an ICW administration in Britain was never really a goal that The Brazilian Delegation thought they could achieve.

Rather, its outrageousness would make their follow-up 'compromise' seem extremely reasonable.

"Since our first proposal has been shot down by committee, as a follow-up, I would like to propose that the ICW at the very least sends representatives to make sure that the British are governing themselves satisfactorily." Moutinho said oilily.

After an unsuccessful attempt to vote himself into the representative role, which Dumbledore's opposition managed to defeat, Moutinho finally managed to push his idea through, by the means of picking a much-liked personality to be the representative.

"If I am unacceptable for the role, I propose Mr Babajide Akingbade as a bipartisan choice, to take a team of his own choosing to monitor the British Ministry."

Albus cursed interally, by choosing Akingbade, he was likely to pass it. Akingbade held similar prestige to Albus himself, and his support for Britain's autonomy, alongside that of Albus was paramount to stopping the movement for passing, but nobody on his side would vote against Akingbade.

As he'd thought, even his own influence could not stop the motion from passing.

"So it is settled then," Moutinho said, "Mr Akingbade, you are to propose your team to this Confederation at an impromptu meeting to be held at this time next week."

Albus felt a headache coming on.

This was bad.

*** **End of Chapter**


	53. The ICW Inspection Team

**An: I have a lot of free time this month and I'm hoping to get back into the groove of getting a decent amount of updates out, so hopefully I get a decent amount of TIP chapters out in May!**

*** **Present**

"So it is settled then," Moutinho said, "Mr Akingbade, you are to propose your team to this Confederation at an impromptu meeting to be held at this time next week."

Albus felt a headache coming on.

This was bad.

*** **Next week, British Ministry**

Babajide Akingbade was a man of large stature. The Nigerian wizard was taller than Albus himself and far wider, with bulging muscles.

Babajide was a young man, at the peak of his physical might and a highly accomplished wizard to boot.

A graduate of Uganda's prestigious Uagadou School of Magic, he had quickly been hailed as a prodigy in the way Albus himself had at Hogwarts all those decades ago.

Unlike Albus, Babajide wasn't content to be a school-teacher in relative anonymity like Albus had been in his early days. The Nigerian Wizard had quickly risen through the ranks of the incredibly corrupt Nigerian Magical Government's political system, and had worked to get rid of corruption from the top down.

While Albus had been busy trying to keep Magical Britain intact against the threat of Voldemort, Babajide had been raising Magical Nigeria through the ranks of prestige on the international stage.

After a short two-year tenure, Babajide had given up the office of President of Magical Nigeria, but continued to delegate for the country in the ICW, eventually becoming Albus' deputy as Supreme Mugwump.

Many considered him to be one of the best and most altruistic politicians of the century but his political savvy was vastly overshadowed by his immense strength.

Babajide was clearly established as one of the strongest wizards in the Magical World. He stunned many not just through his magical prowess but also his dedication to both his magical and physical fortitude, both of which he trained immensely.

While his current prestige may not have been exactly what Albus' had been all those decades ago when he burst onto the scene by defeating Grindelwald, at the present moment, Albus' own influence was closely matched on the international level by Babajide. Thankfully for Albus, the Nigerian Wizard largely agreed with him and the two shared an amiable working relationship as well as a large amount of respect for the accomplishments of the other.

All in all, Babajide Akingbade was as good a choice to oversee the government of Magical Britain as Albus could have hoped for.

His main problem with the entire arrangement wasn't the appointment of Babajide, if anything, the Nigerian Wizard was likely to aid the fumbling British Ministry for Magic, but rather the implications of the ICW taking such an obviously suspicious stance of Britain. The dislike between the two entities was likely to make working together hard when international cooperation would most definitely be required.

"Babajide!" Albus smiled, enveloping the large man in a hug.

"Albus." Babajide responded in his deep husky voice, "How have you been, my friend?"

"Good, good." Albus replied cheerfully, looking analytically at the 3 men behind Babajide.

Cyril Cosmos, a Greek Wizard of Beauxbatons education, also a famously honest politician and a formidable fighter. So far so good.

Anu Iyer, a famous retired Indian auror turned politician.

Albus turned to look at the third member of Babajide's team only to double take at the sight of his old friend, Nicholas Flamel.

At the sight of his obvious disbelief, Nicholas cut him off before he could say anything.

"Pierre Moreau, at your service." Nicholas said, in a heavy French accent, that Albus knew for a fact was put on.

Thinking quickly, and deciding to keep quiet, Albus inclined his own head, "Albus Dumbledore, it's good to meet you."

The other two took the opportunity to greet himtoo, though Albus had met both before.

"Anu! It's good to see you." Albus said with a smile before turning to the Greek wizard, "Cyril, you look to be holding up well too!"

"Well indeed, Albus." The Greek replied with a smile, "But I wish I were meeting you under better circumstances."

Albus' smile faded a little, "These are troubling times indeed, but I do not believe that this kind of suspicion between the British Ministry and the ICW is going to benefit anyone." He said gravely, "I'm glad that Babajide, and you two are here, and I'm sure that Mr Moreau is reliable too, he must be if Babajide trusts him, but I fear the Minister has not appreciated this move, and it has taken much effort to stop the him from denouncing the ICW for this move of hostility, indeed, I doubt it would have been possible had we not needed help desperately."

Anu grinned, "Well, as you may have picked up, Albus, Baba has picked this team to help in the upcoming war more than be a pain in the ass for your Ministry."

Babajide flicked his fingers at her with a small understated smirk, and a spark flew from his finger which sealed her lips shut.

Literally.

"Shush now Anu," He said playfully.

The Indian Witch scowled, flicking a short wand which slipped into her hand out of thin air to unbind her lips.

"Meanie." The witch well into her 60s stuck out her tongue.

Albus cleared his throat, "I think I should show you up to the Minister's office." He said amusedly.

The Nigerian Wizard nodded his head, following Albus as he led the 4 into the Ministry building via the telephone box.

On the way down, he made some conversation with Nicholas in disguise.

"So, Pierre, I find myself quite surprised I haven't heard of you before, if you're worthy of Babajide's notice, you must be quite the wizard, and quite the fighter if our present company is anything to go by." Albus said lightly, but probingly.

Pierre laughed lightly, "I've been around but I keep a… _low profile._ " The Frenchman said, meaningfully, "and I like to _keep it that way."_

Albus nodded understandingly, "Fame brings its own follies with it." He said understandingly and leaving the conversation at that, drew his wand and gave Pierre's hand a little tap.

Babajide looked at the older wizard strangely at the odd behavior but Pierre gave a little laugh so the Nigerian Wizard left it at that.

"Please inform Minister Fudge that Albus Dumbledore and Babajide Akingbade's ICW Team are awaiting him." Albus said politely to the young receptionist in the Minister's front office.

The young woman stammered her response, "Yessir, at once Professor Dumbledore…umm, would you like some tea sir?" she said to her former Headmaster.

Albus smiled, "I'm not your professor anymore, Linda, but a spot of tea would be nice."

Linda nodded her head quickly before disappearing into the Minister's office.

"Someone's popular" Anu grinned at Albus.

"Ah, old students." Albus said with a smile.

"You've been Headmaster of half of the workforce of this country at some point or other." Babajide said in his gravelly voice, "No wonder this country loves you so much."

"That's rich coming from you, Baba." Anu pointed out.

"I am not adored this much." Babajide argued lightly.

"The Minister will see you now, Professor." Linda said breathlessly, seeming to have gotten just a little less awestruck.

Albus and his entourage entered the office of the Minister.

Fudge got up to shake Albus' hand before turning to the others, lowering his hand in a show of hostility.

"Gentlemen." He said, trying to be intimidating but failing hilariously, faced with Babajide.

Babajide cracked a smile, "It is good to meet you Minister Fudge, as you know we have been assigned here by the International Confederation of Wizards to oversee the British Ministry during this time of crisis."

Fudge frowned and looked like he was about to argue when Babajide continued, "I am personally of the belief that there is nothing to be gained from pointless conflict, therefore I have assembled a team to help fight against the enemy rather than simply cause disturbances by monitoring your governance. We will however, require a weekly report from you on motions made and the ongoing war effort so that we can report it back to the ICW."

Fudge looked at Albus for an idea of what to do.

"It is good for our war effort, Minister, and they do not ask much, do as they say and we will avoid conflict and gain the aid of the ICW." Albus said calmly.

"Very well then, I shall do as you say."

*** **End of Chapter**


	54. The Unfortunate Tale of Bromophenol Blue

*** **The Minister's Home**

Cornelius Fudge lay back into his hot tub and relaxed for the first time that week.

Merlin's Beard, what a week it had been!

Fudge had never resented his position as Minister quite as much as he did at that moment.

Not only was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named back, the ICW were on his ass 24/7.

There were 24 aurors outside his house at this very moment, protecting him from any kind of attack. Additionally, there were supposed to be 6 more aurors guarding him inside his own house, but Fudge had slipped them a gold galleon each and sent them home.

He had to have some down-time after all. It was impossible to relax in one's hot tub in quite the same way with 6 burly men standing guard around it and waving their wands around.

Cornelius Fudge had never been a wartime Minister, he had taken over the job directly from Millicent Bagnold, who had been in power during the majority of the reign of Voldemort. During said reign, he had been rising through the ranks of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes.

Fortunately for him at the time, not high enough through the ranks to ever be noticed by the Dark Lord, living in fear of Death Eaters but no more so than the next Magical British citizen.

If he had been Minister during the earlier reign of Voldemort, or indeed in any position of power that would put him in the Dark Lord's notice, he would not have been sending away security the previous hour.

He would have been on his knees, begging Amelia Bones for more aurors to protect his sorry behind.

Alas, he had not been in such power, and had no such experience, and thus was presently lounging in his bath tub with no auror detail on his person, relying entirely on his paltry wards and the 24 aurors stationed outside his house.

Cornelius closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath, basking in the relaxation of the moment.

Cornelius' relaxation was broken by the sound of a few muted thumps from outside his house.

With barely veiled annoyance, Cornelius cursed the stupid aurors, who had no doubt succumbed to boredom and were engaging in some form of childish horseplay to pass the time.

'Well,' Cornelius thought, 'They shall not be interrupting me this night!' and with a triumphant flick of his wand, muted sounds from outside with a whispered spell.

It didn't quite work but muted the already soft sounds enough that the spell, along with the copious amount of earwax in Cornelius' ears managed to block out the sound enough for the foolish man to ignore them entirely.

Outside the house, a majority Cornelius' auror detail lay in various stages of lifelessness and injury, scattered across the floor, some more gruesomely than others.

The Death Eaters themselves had suffered 3 casualties at the hands of valiant aurors until the Dark Lord himself deigned it time to enter the battle himself, effectively ending it right there and then.

The head of the auror guard, Bromophenol Blue, just about managed to avoid the first overwhelming wave of darkness which the Dark Lord sent his way with a careless flick of his wrist.

Bromophenol sent rubble rocketing at Voldemort, hoping to distract the Dark Lord for just a split second.

He fumbled inside his coat, finding the small blue stone given to him by Babajide Akingbade, to squeeze in times of need.

Bromophenol squeezed the stone desperately as Voldemort seemed to simply walk through the hail of debris coming his way, the debris that came close to hitting the monstrosity of a man seemed to turn to dust just before they could hit him.

Thankfully, Bromophenol noted, the Dark Lord seemed to be simply playing with him, the crazed look on his face resembling a child with a favorite toy more than a Dark Lord hell-bent on killing him.

As he squeezed the stone, it seemed to project a hologram-like image of Babajide upwards.

At the moment, the Nigerian man seemed to be sleeping, his eyes closed.

"Akingbade!" Bromophenol yelled.

Babajide seemed to awaken in a single instant, taking in the situation immediately, "Brom, where are you?" he said quickly, already getting up, picking up a dragon-hide protective cloak and shrugging it on over his nightie, his wand sliding out of a holster on his arm.

"The Minister's house," Bromophenol said quickly, opening his mouth to speak again, only to be blown away by a gust of wind.

Bromophenol got to his feet in a roll, groaning at the several broken ribs, only to find himself face-to-face with Voldemort, who he could have sworn was several feet away but had dissolved into being right in front of him, in a way quite unlike regular apparition.

"Boo." The Dark Lord said mirthlessly, the first words he had spoken that night, in a raspy voice.

Before his brain could fully comprehend the terror of being face to face with Voldemort himself, it found itself along with the rest of his head several metres away from the rest of Bromophenol's body.

Voldemort giggled.

Three loud cracks behind him forced Voldemort to turn around, only to meet several spells to the face.

Voldemort dissolved into shadows, appearing behind his 3 assailants.

The Dark Lord identified his attackers as 3 of the 4 members of the ICW inspection team.

Babajide Akingbade, Cyril Cosmos, and Anu Iyer faced him defiantly.

"Baba, what happened here?" Anu muttered, surveying the bodies of the auror detail with barely veiled horror.

Babajide himself seemed to be looking for someone.

The eyes of the Nigerian wizard finally came to lay upon the severed head of Bromophenol Blue.

His eyes cloudy with rage, Babajide attacked the Dark Lord with ruthless abandon.

Cyril and Anu could only watch as their leader charged Voldemort.

The duel that followed was truly fierce.

The Minister's house was located well outside of muggle-inhabited areas, and it had muggle repelling wards for a mile around, there was a wizarding village not too far away but for his own safety and peace, the Minister was a fair distance away from the village.

The open terrain allowed Voldemort to truly release his magical power, unlike he could without risking buildings collapsing on himself in most other scenarios.

A wave of darkness lifted the Dark Lord up and he rode it, hurtling towards Babajide.

With a swish of his wand, he pierced the wave of darkness with a beam of light, forcing Voldemort to freefall towards the ground, catching himself in a net of darkness which released him onto the ground, almost on Babajide himself.

The two wizards raised their wands simultaneously, their wands at each other's noses at the same time, both their mouths opening to speak an incantation.

*** **End of Chapter**


	55. Baba takes on Voldemort

**An: Yikes! Time passes quickly! It seems like I was writing the last chapter 2 minutes ago and boom! It's been 3 days already.**

 **An2: I'm facing a couple problems with the keyboard on the laptop that I regularly use so I'm typing this on a different computer and it is kinda weird to get used to a different keyboard so this chapter will definitely be out later than it would have been otherwise, so sorry for the delay there.**

*** **Present**

The Minister's house was located well outside of muggle-inhabited areas, and it had muggle repelling wards for a mile around, there was a wizarding village not too far away but for his own safety and peace, the Minister was a fair distance away from the village.

The open terrain allowed Voldemort to truly release his magical power, unlike he could without risking buildings collapsing on himself in most other scenarios.

A wave of darkness lifted the Dark Lord up and he rode it, hurtling towards Babajide.

With a swish of his wand, he pierced the wave of darkness with a beam of light, forcing Voldemort to freefall towards the ground, catching himself in a net of darkness which released him onto the ground, almost on Babajide himself.

The two wizards raised their wands simultaneously, their wands at each other's noses at the same time, both their mouths opening to speak an incantation.

At that moment, just as they were both about to release a spell, Babajide change tactics and swiped out with his leg, tripping Voldemort who had not anticipated the physical assault.

Babajide's knee came up to meet Voldemort's chin but just as he was about to deal the knockout blow, the figure of the Dark Lord seemed to flicker out of existence and appear a fair distance behind where Babajide was.

The Death Eaters on the other hand were not staying still, choosing to attack Babajide from random directions, but being held off by Babajide's two companions.

With wide sweeping theatrical motions, the Greek Wizard blew away Death Eaters casually, as they attempted to sneak up on the Nigerian Wizard locked in combat with their master.

Anu looked at the fight between the two scarily strong wizards with concern.

"Should we be helping him?" she asked, absent-mindedly flicking her wand to send a Death Eater flying into a tree.

Cyrus frowned, "We would likely be little more than a hindrance." He noted wryly, "If Pierre was here, only he could hope to match either of those two." At this he gestured at the ongoing fight.

Shards of darkness were flying in all directions, some of them impaled some of Voldemort's more careless Death Eaters, the rest being intelligent enough to be out of striking range, as they all turned around to take shots at the Nigerian Wizard, invariably missing or being dispelled by Babajide, but they were just a distraction.

Voldemort was managing the shards of darkness entirely unconsciously, while also maintaining a barrage of spells, all directed at Babajide, barely paying his companions any mind.

Despite his immense strength, Babajide was struggling against the casual might of Voldemort who wasn't even being overly serious but was just so overwhelmingly strong that the younger duelist was barely able to keep up with the Dark Lord.

Voldemort yawned.

With a start, Babajide realised that the Dark Lord was barely straining himself, sticking to casual duelling.

Gritting his teeth, Babajide, summoned a large wave of water and jumped, landing gracefully on the top of the wave, flicking a single finger which sent a spark, turning the water to ice just below Babajide's feet, allowing him to ride the wave on a makeshift ice-surfboard of sorts.

On this mount, he hurtled towards Voldemort, who finally looked mildly interested in the battle.

Voldemort rose slowly on an even larger wave of shadows, which were similar to water in the way they flowed but were eerily sentient.

Atop their magical mounts, the two Wizards took potshots at each other, sending extravagant waves of their respective elements at their opponent.

Thanks to his massive magical might, Babajide was able to repel the strikes of darkness which were being sent at him by Voldemort, though struggling greatly in the process, but his own strikes seemed to be having little effect against his opponent.

Frustrated, Babajide threw his entire magical might at Voldemort, not bothering to channel it into a spell, bursting pure magic at his opponent.

"Baba!" Anu yelled, "You idiot!"

In all her time having known him, Babajide had been an unflappable being, she had never seen anything which could drive him to such levels of recklessness.

Pure magic was hard to control at the best of times, and it simply drained your magical core. To be sure, Babajide had enough mastery of magic not to drain himself dry, which could possibly have caused death, but if he drained himself even a little too much, he'd be too weakened to continue the fight against Voldemort, and if he wanted to deal any kind of significant damage to Voldemort, he would have to channel a significant amount of his magical core.

In the past, even when Babajide was younger and had been heavily outclassed by certain opponents, he had never lost his cool to this extent, he would much rather retreat or take a safe loss than be reckless like he was being now, especially not in a scenario where if he couldn't defend himself, he could easily lose his life to the Dark Lord.

'Maybe,' Anu thought, pensievely, 'It's an effect of The Darkness'.

Indeed The Darkness had been known to be able to control the thoughts and actions of people, though its lack of influence in recent time had for the most part limited its control to just those who willingly submitted themselves to The Darkness.

It was definitely worrying if The Darkness had enough power to influence somebody as strong-willed as Babajide to this extent.

Anu hoped fervently that she was entirely wrong, and her old friend was simply frustrated by the way the duel was so heavily stacked against him, but the more she thought of the Babajide she knew, the more certain she felt that this was not something he would do of his own free mind.

'The Darkness is willing Baba to do this, throw his all at it, and realise he's coming up short, it wants to envelop him in hopelessness.' Anu realised.

Pure energy continued to shoot out of Babajide's hands, in a large steady burst, it hit Voldemort straight-on, cutting through the wave of darkness which had come up to protect the Dark Lord.

A jet of darkness came to counter it but it was failing slowly, unfortunately, so was Babajide's strength, but he seemed to keep on pushing his magic into it.

The stream of Darkness failed and the pure magic crashed into Voldemort.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Cliffhanger...well kinda**


	56. Voldemort, defeated?

**An: I dunno how much of a cliffhanger it was in the last chapter, because it seems pretty obvious that for the sake of this story, there is only 1 outcome that is really possible but hey, there's some very cool stuff coming up pretty soon, this story is finally beginning to get really interesting, even if it's taken me nearly 70k words to get it here!**

 **VERY IMPORTANT NOTE, PLEASE READ: I have just gotten a very disturbing review from a user by the name of Arnie1702.**

 **He has written:**

" **Reported. You have been found breaking of rules by TAPIR forum and you will be mass reported by us and you will be banned. Enjoy your ban rule breaker.**

 **Mach The Slewfoot,**

 **Admin of TAPIR forum."**

 **For those of you who don't know what TAPIR is, I didn't either, I've looked them up and they seem to be some kind of plagiarism forum for FFNet.**

 **Not only is it EXTREMELY offensive to me to be accused of plagiarism, I am also honestly not sure what the validity of that claim is. The review was left on my first chapter, indicating that the claimant didn't even READ my story before finding it to violate TAPIR guidelines.**

 **I believe that Arnie himself is likely a troll, but I don't know whether he has actually reported me to TAPIR or what, I haven't heard of them before this, and I honestly do not know whether this story is under danger of being taken down.**

 **I have put a significant amount of the last 2 years into writing this story. I know I'm not the best of writers, and most of you reading this likely know that too. However, I have always tried to write to the best of my ability, and I believe that, with the help of lots of constructive reviews, and a lot of practise at writing, I have become a far better writer than I was before.**

 **Whatever your opinion of my writing is, I do not mind it, I understand why people may not like what I write or how I write, that is completely okay with me, however, I would just like to say that everything that has been posted on this story has been written in its entirety by me. Nothing in any story of mine on FFNet has been plagiarised.**

 **That said, thanks to all of you who continue to read my work on this site, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the rest of this story, hell, I hope I am allowed to write the rest of this story.**

 **If anyone has any idea on how TAPIR works, or knows anything about what Arnie said, please PM me, I don't know how legitimately worried I should be. The only action I have taken is sending a PM to one of the mods of TAPIR.**

 **Sorry to all for the extremely long AN, but I am actually worried about this.**

 **Now, on with the chapter.**

 ***** Present**

Pure energy continued to shoot out of Babajide's hands, in a large steady burst, it hit Voldemort straight-on, cutting through the wave of darkness which had come up to protect the Dark Lord.

A jet of darkness came to counter it but it was failing slowly, unfortunately, so was Babajide's strength, but he seemed to keep on pushing his magic into it.

The stream of Darkness failed and the pure magic crashed into Voldemort.

It hit the Dark Lord straight in the chest.

Voldemort threw back his head and screamed, his body being flung far away from Babajide, leaving a scorching trail of destruction in its path.

Babajide fell to his knees, his magic exhausted for the moment, completely spent from the exertion.

Anu rushed over to him, catching the far larger man with little effort.

Babajide's eyes rolled back into his head.

Anu didn't know whether to be exasperated at her old friend or to rejoice in awe that The Darkness' greatest servant had just been taken down by Baba.

The more pragmatic Cyril, approached what seemed to be the corpse of the Dark Lord lying far in the distance with a raised wand.

It was a gruesome sight.

The stream had cut through Voldemort's chest, there were obvious signs of burning, and blood and organs had gone flying everywhere.

Ribs seemed to be cracked and Voldemort's neck was at an odd angle.

Cyril lowered his wand in relief, leaning down to take Voldemort's pulse, just in case.

Not feeling anything he got back up, turning his back to the corpse, beginning to yell something to his comrades who were still quite a way away, Anu supporting the unconscious body of Babajide.

Then he heard something rustle behind him.

Cyril turned, wondering whether some of the Death Eaters that fled upon assault from him and Anu had returned to check on their master.

Cyril had not thought that there could be a more gruesome sight than that of Voldemort's dead body, but what appeared before him was perhaps even worse.

The 'corpse' of Voldemort was standing on 2 feet, darkness swirled around it's chest, flowing in and taking the place of destroyed organs and coming out to sew the Dark Lord's chest shut.

His broken neck snapped into place awkwardly, a shard of bone sticking out of his neck.

"That wasn't very nice." Voldemort crooned, his broken body being held together by The Darkness.

Shadows coalesced around the Dark Lord.

Cyril stumbled back a few steps involuntarily, the magic radiating off Voldemort was enough to make the formidable wizard scared to the bone.

The normally-brave Greek tried to apparate out, his comrades be damned, but after a second of trying felt like he'd run straight into a brick wall.

The Greek Wizard whimpered in the face of the strongest force of evil he had ever faced.

"Anu…" he whispered slowly, "ANU!" he yelled louder.

The Indian witch looked towards him cheerfully before her smile faltered at the sight of the Dark Lord.

Blades of darkness flew at Cyril.

The Greek wizard moved out of instinct, despite his fear, a wall of rock emerging out of the ground to block the strikes, but shattering uselessly as The Darkness tore straight through his formidable defense like a hot knife through butter.

Cyril let out a primal scream of pain as several knifes of Darkness tore into his skin.

His well-trained mind brokenly noted that none of his injuries were fatal.

The Dark Lord wanted to play with his prey.

Cyril knew better than to pull out the knives of Darkness which were embedded all over his body.

The Greek tried to drag himself to his feet, unable to stop the mewls of pain as he attempted to stand back up.

His Indian companion had come running, her wand blazing, spells flying at magnificent rates, all of them extremely lethal.

The body of Voldemort simply stood there, taking all the spells to his person.

His bones crunched, his blood boiled and if the swelling in his chest indicated anything, his lungs turned inside out.

Voldemort laughed, his boiling blood gushing out of his mouth.

The Darkness enveloped him, standing in for bones and fixing his lungs.

With a flick of his hand, bindings of Darkness flew from his hand to bind the Indian witch, who dove out of the way, having learnt from Cyril's takedown that there was no way in hell she could counter the Dark Lord's attacks herself.

"Clever girl!" Voldemort said, as if talking to a favoured pet, vaguely gesturing with his hand, causing the restraints of Darkness to fly at Anu once more.

A wall of fire met the darkness, but it seemed to flicker out of existence as it touched the magic of it's foe.

The restraints flew into Anu, crashing her down to the floor, surely breaking at least a few of the witch's bones.

Despite the obvious damage, the Indian witch didn't even flinch.

Voldemort lazily made the restraints tighten around her to extreme levels, cutting into her skin. Anu didn't let out any sign she was affected by the bindings, choosing to glare at the Dark Lord with hateful eyes instead.

"I have to punish the bad boys and girls!" Voldemort remarked, as if to explain his torture relative to the quick deaths of the aurors.

With a flick of his wand, which he had drawn for the first time in this duel, he had placed Anu under the cruciatus curse.

Despite not having shown any signs of pain to the arguably insane levels of pain the Dark Lord had already put her under, even Anu could not remain unfazed by the cruciatus.

A screech of pain was drawn from her lips.

Cyril, who had managed to get to his feet was feebly sending spells at Voldemort.

With a flick of his wrist, the knives of Darkness still embedded in the Greek wizard all dissolved into nothingness, leaving his body to start bleeding out.

Without another word, Cyril charged at the Dark Lord, swiping his wand aggressively, but to no avail.

He was simply flung aside by the Dark Lord, who seemed to be getting bored of this whole ordeal.

In her pain, Anu barely noticed the slight telltale pop of apparition accompanied by a sprightly "Good Morning!" being spoken by a cheerful voice.

Anu turned her head as much as she could, the cruciatus curse on her having been momentarily dropped as Voldemort himself surveyed the new arrival.

Anu's eyes finally landed on the poor soul who had landed up there at that very moment.

Pierre Moreau.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: I would once again like to reiterate that if you have any idea what is up with the entire Arnie/TAPIR thing, please PM me.**


	57. Pierre to the rescue

**An: In regard to yesterday's note, I would like to thank my reviewers for revealing the troll for what he is. On Swainbob142's recommendation, I checked out a story here on FFNet named 'The Never-Ending Saga of the Serial Plagiarist' by Megamatt09, which really cleared things up. You can check it out if you want.**

 **An2: I also contacted** **LadyRainFeather, who is an mod of TAPIR, who confirmed that Arnie is simply a troll and not a real mod or member of their forum. Thanks to her for the prompt reply clearing things up. TAPIR seems to be a legit plagiarism forum.**

 **An3: It seems that not only was Arnie1702 a troll, his name was copying a legitimate writer on this site, Arnie1701 who is an actual good writer. This is frankly quite infuriating behaviour, previous accounts of his have been banned, and with any luck, 1702 will be banned soon. With that said, on with chapter 57!**

 ***** Present**

In her pain, Anu barely noticed the slight telltale pop of apparition accompanied by a sprightly "Good Morning!" being spoken by a cheerful voice.

Anu turned her head as much as she could, the cruciatus curse on her having been momentarily dropped as Voldemort himself surveyed the new arrival.

Anu's eyes finally landed on the poor soul who had landed up there at that very moment.

Pierre Moreau.

"Ah, the Frenchman joins us, I thought you had run away like the rest of your people." Voldemort said mockingly, twirling his wand between his fingers, "Well, it's your lucky day, you get to join your playmates!"

Voldemort sent shackles of Darkness at Pierre, but as they restrained the man, his body faded into dust.

A kick to the back of his head alerted Voldemort to the real position of the French wizard.

With a giggle the Dark Lord turned to face his enemy, "At least one of you has some brains." he said.

Without a word, Pierre sent a wall of fire bursting at Voldemort, far hotter and fiercer than any such attack by his companions before him.

Voldemort put up a wall of Darkness to block it, but even The Darkness, had to yield to the immense wall of fire, not dissipating but getting pushed back slowly.

Pierre could have chosen to use the time he had gained to try and get an advantage over Voldemort, something he could certainly have used, but instead turned to his friends.

The restraints on Anu had dissipated as the Dark Lord called all of the Darkness that he had to defend against Pierre's wall of fire. The Indian witch had gotten to her feet unsteadily.

Pierre waved his wand deftly over Cyril, sealing up the many wounds that had been bleeding out just moments earlier.

The sealings were not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, and were very vulnerable to attack, but they would stop the Greek wizard from bleeding out entirely before they got out of there.

"Quick, we have to get out of here," Pierre said, "If I'd known it was this serious, I'd have been here a long time ago, what were you idiots thinking, taking on the Dark Lord without Baba!"

"We _weren't_ ," Anu said, gesturing to the unconscious body of Babajide.

Pierre cursed under his breath but couldn't say anything further because the Dark Lord had finally burst out of the fire, dispelling the entire thing with a boom that caused the ground under their feet to crack and sent shockwaves all the way into the Minister's house, which stayed upright only by the copious amounts of magical enchantments that prevented its downfall.

Voldemort emerged, looking far more burnt than he had before, but once again enveloped in Darkness which kept his body going, stronger than ever.

The Dark Lord held out both his hands, shadows forming in a spiral around them.

With a boom, the shadows around his hands dispersed, moving so fast that they caused the air to ripple, flinging Pierre backwards.

The French wizard caught himself a second after he was launched, and dropped to the ground gracefully before continuing the fight. 

Voldemort seemed to be a little distracted throughout the fight and finally came to a realisation.

After sending a dragon of Darkness flying at the man, Voldemort pointed at him, "You, you are Nicholas Flamel!"

Pierre stiffened, "I don't know what you're talking about," he said casually.

"No, the old magic you are using," Voldemort said, "I can feel it, not even Dumbledore knew magic this old."

"You are mistaken, Voldemort, if you think THIS magic is old, you don't know very much about magic itself," Pierre said, continuing his assault on the Dark Lord.

"I am NOT WRONG!" Voldemort yelled in fury, Darkness swirling around him and pointlessly gouging the ground, as if he were throwing a temper tantrum, a highly lethal temper tantrum.

Anu looked at Pierre in shock, "Is he telling the truth?" she said disbelievingly.

"Of course I am, girl, Flamel isn't even bothering to disguise his face, he looks exactly as he does normally, the rest of you were pathetic to not recognise him for who he is."

"Shut up." Flamel said, sending a whip of fire at Voldemort.

Voldemort defended against the whip of fire before addressing Anu again, "Foolish girl, do not believe Flamel, besides, it's your fault for believing him entirely at face value."

Anu felt a spike of anger and mistrust towards Pierre, for a second she felt like turning on her ally, attacking him with everything she had.

How DARE he lie to her.

Just a second later, however, she realised she was being influenced by The Darkness.

The Indian witch took a deep breath and said, "It doesn't matter what his name is, I trust Pierre."

The French wizard shot her a quick grin before jumping back into the fight.

Suddenly, Anu heard Pierre's voice in her head.

 _You two cannot help me in this fight, you would only hinder me, but even I myself cannot win this fight. It is only a matter of time until I will be overcome by the powers of The Darkness. By our location, I assume that you are protecting the home of the Minister, while I hold off the Dark Lord, go inside his house, get him and pick up Baba. You cannot currently apparate out of here, as I'm sure you have found already, you simply do not have the power to break through the Dark Lord's wards To combat this, I'm giving you a-_

The message was cut off abruptly as Pierre was slammed into a wall.

Voldemort had a triumphant smile on his face, until Pierre emerged from amidst the rubble with barely a scratch on him.

"You thought I had no protections on myself?" Pierre said casually, "Only you are that arrogant, Voldemort."

Just before charging at Voldemort once more, Pierre's voice appeared in Anu's head once more.

 _Squeeze it, it will give you the strength you need to apparate out of here._

Before she could ask what it was, the voice in her head cut off and she saw Pierre jump at Voldemort, spells coming out of his wand, fire being directed by his other, he sent kicks of charged air, and punches of flame at his opponent.

Amidst the chaos, Anu felt something very heavy settle into her pocket.

She took it out of her pocket discreetly.

It was a small disc made out of pure gold with runes all over it. In the centre was embedded a small ruby red shard which seemed to emanate power.

Out of curiosity, Anu pressed down on it lightly and felt a surge of power go up her arm.

Both duelists turned to look in her direction.

Anu hid the disc hastily, running towards the Minister's house.

Voldemort attempted to attack her directly, but Pierre got in the way, blasting him off course and sending the Dark Lord flying into a tree.

"You're not getting at her until you get through me." the French wizard said, sending a spell at the ground directly beneath Voldemort, turning it to ice and causing his opponent to slip.

Anu raced towards the Minister's house, Cyril hobbling behind her, apparently having received a message of some sort from Pierre as well.

The Greek Wizard slung the unconscious body of Babajide over his shoulder, and after a bit of hesitation, picked up the body and head of the decapitated Bromophenol Blue, casting a featherlight charm on the load he was carrying.

Just as Anu was about to enter the house of the Minister, the front door opened.

Cornelius Fudge stood at the doorway with his hands on his hips and an irritated expression on his face, dressed in only a towel that was wrapped around his lower half, his large stomach overflowing out of the towel

"Aurors!" he barked, "I thought I had made it clear I wanted no disturbances tonight" he said, "I wanted _complete_ peace and-"

The Minister finally registered the carnage laid out in front of him.

"Well shit." he said, before an Avada Kedavra caught him straight in the chest.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Mwahahahahaha, didya see that coming? (okay it wasn't THAT surprising, you may well have seen it coming)**


	58. The End of the Fudge Administration

*** **Present**

Just as Anu was about to enter the house of the Minister, the front door opened.

Cornelius Fudge stood at the doorway with his hands on his hips and an irritated expression on his face, dressed in only a towel that was wrapped around his lower half, his large stomach overflowing out of the towel

"Aurors!" he barked, "I thought I had made it clear I wanted no disturbances tonight" he said, "I wanted _complete_ peace and-"

The Minister finally registered the carnage laid out in front of him.

"Well shit." he said, before an Avada Kedavra caught him straight in the chest.

As the spell flew from the wand of Voldemort, Pierre moved towards the deadly green beam of light, moving his hand to raise a wall of rock to absorb the blow.

Voldemort sent shadows to hold down the defense Pierre had tried to place, holding it in place just long enough for the spell to hit the Minister before the wall burst out of the ground with excessive force.

The Dark Lord cackled loudly, "The Minister for Magic is dead!"

Cornelius Fudge crumpled to the ground, his eyes bulging outwards in surprise.

For better or for worse, the Fudge Administration had come to an abrupt end.

Voldemort waved his hand and darkness gathered around him once more.

The Dark Lord release all of the shadows at once, causing them to fly outwards quickly, causing destruction on a large scale.

With his quick thinking, Pierre put up a small magical shield to protect himself, his colleagues and the 2 dead bodies of Bromophenol and the Minister.

Just as the assault ended, the shield crumbled into nothingness, having just about weathered the assault.

Pierre took a look around.

Destruction.

Behind him the Minister's House was in ruins, the entire thing had been blown off it's foundation, bits and pieces of it lay all over the place. The trees and shrubbery had for the most part been ripped out of the ground and flung everywhere.

No sign of Voldemort.

Well shit.

*** **Later**

The scene of the crime was littered with Aurors, Babajide, Cyril, and Anu had been rushed to St Mungos to be treated for their injuries, and in Babajide's case, for magical exhaustion, which seemed to be quite severe with the amount of his magic that he had expended in the fight against Voldemort.

As the only one from the ICW Team still in any kind of shape to answer questions, Pierre had been hounded with questions.

The British Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Madam Amelia Bones was a no-nonsense woman, very smart and a hard worker to boot.

She had come personally to investigate the attack on the Minister's home once it had been reported.

It wasn't quite dawn yet, the attack having commenced in the middle of the night, but the bags under her eyes didn't seem to dull Amelia Bones' senses, Pierre noted with respect.

Rufus Scrimgeour, a seasoned senior Auror had accompanied Bones along with a 10-man Auror investigation team.

While the rest of the Aurors gathered the destroyed bodies of their dead comrades, others moved to investigate the scene.

Amelia herself, along with Rufus conjured themselves chairs and sat opposite Pierre.

Bones was quick and to-the-point, "What happened here." she said calmly.

"Voldemort attacked the Minister's home tonight." Pierre said calmly, noting Rufus' shudder at the name of the Dark Lord and Amelia's stoic lack of reaction.

"That seems pretty obvious," Amelia said tersely, "It would be much appreciated if you could shed some more light on this situation, Mr Moreau."

"I arrived later than the others, so I don't know the exact details of the assault, but Voldemort along with his Death Eaters attacked the Minister's home. Head Auror Bromophenol Blue had an enchanted stone, a device which could call the head of our ICW Inspection Team, Babajide Akingbade, in the case of an emergency. Baba himself sent Anu, Cyril, and I a message to meet him at the Minister's place. Baba exhausted himself magically in an attempt to take down the Dark Lord, while all the Death Eaters were forced to flee by Cyril and Anu. About that time, I joined Anu and Cyril to take on Voldemort. The plan was for Anu and Cyril to take Baba and get the Minister and escape while I distracted the Dark Lord, but the Minister chose that unfortunate moment to come out of his house," Pierre recounted grimly, "I tried my best to stop the curse, but Voldemort hit the Minister with an Avada Kedavra."

At this, Pierre looked over at the dead body of the Minister, who had been covered with his own towel to protect his modesty, for the moment.

Amelia massaged her head and sighed, "And what of my aurors?" she asked grimly, already anticipating the answer.

"Dead."

"All of them?" Amelia asked desperately.

"All of them, including your Head Auror Brom." Pierre said, with regret in his voice, "I'm sure they put up a valiant fight, all of them, but they couldn't stand up to the might of the Dark Lord."

Amelia nodded her head, taking a long sip of her strong coffee, "Off the books, Pierre?"

The Frenchman nodded his consent.

"How do you think the ICW will react to this?" Amelia continued.

"Not well, I fear, Baba may have been on your side, but there is a large part of the ICW which is not fond of Magical Britain in the slightest, they will be spurred on by this, they will attempt to install an ICW leadership in Britain, and it doesn't seem like the British Magical Government is in any state to resist."

Pierre looked at Amelia, "I don't even know whether the British Magical Government is in any kind of state to govern, no doubt Voldemort will attempt to take power in the vacuum of power that has been created by the death of Fudge, and the late Minister was simply surrounded by supporters of the Dark Lord, it would be only too easy to install a stooge who will not oppose him, then to simply walk into the Ministry after having, for all intents and purposes, taken over the entirety of Magical Britain."

Amelia looked determined, "Whatever Voldemort plans, it will not get through, I promise. Despite the kind of people Cornelius surrounded himself with, there are honest and strong politicians in the Ministry, I know it! Whatever happens, we **will** hold out."

*** **End of Chapter**


	59. What Comes Next?

**An: 400 Reviews! Thank you all for the reviews. They're always super awesome to read**

 ***** Hogwarts**

Albus Dumbledore was having a bad day.

Bad days seemed to getting far more common for the old wizard, they were almost the norm at this point. Unfortunately for Albus, however, his day was going especially badly.

He awoke to an owl from Amelia Bones, the head of British Magical Law Enforcement.

 _Albus,_

 _Minister Fudge has been murdered, get to the Ministry quickly,_

 _Yours truly,_

 _Amelia Bones_

 _Head_

 _Dept. Magical Law Enforcement_

Albus felt a cold feeling of dread envelop him.

This was bad.

He absorbed the implications of the assassination very quickly. It was obvious that Voldemort would attempt to put a stooge into power, but even aside from that, the ICW's large anti-British faction would be all over this.

They needed a new Minister and quick.

*** **Amelia Bones' office, DMLE, Ministry**

Amelia's office was not particularly large, smaller, in fact, than any of her predecessor's offices had ever been. For the most part, this didn't bother the head of the DMLE, if anything, she had come to like the comforting coziness of the small office, which along with a couple charms could be a very comfortable place to crash after pulling an all-nighter or getting involved in a late-night mission.

Unfortunately, the small office was quite cramped when it came to having other people in it. The Ministry had fallen into chaos after the untimely death of the previous Minister, it was obvious that they needed to elect a new Minister, and quick, lest the ICW instal their own government in Magical Britain, but the two opposing halves of the Ministry were unable to come to an agreement.

Magical Law stated that they had to hold a democratic election to vote in the next Minister for Magic but with no candidates actively running and the ICW on their tails, it was likely that the voting would be entirely blind and Amelia wouldn't put it past Lucius Malfoy to fill a lot of pockets to ensure that their stooge won the election.

The Wizengamot was to meet the next day to discuss the details of the elections and who the candidates were.

To get a candidate through the Wizengamot itself would be very hard, as the body was largely occupied by supporters of Voldemort and politicians savvy enough to know that opposing Voldemort's candidate likely held an untimely death for them in the near future.

Of course the magical public were free to vote for whoever they wanted, but there was little to no chance of them voting in a Minister who wasn't officially endorsed by the Wizengamot, despite having done similar things for Albus Dumbledore in the past.

Albus himself was unlikely to ever accept the post for Minister, and Amelia was a little glad for it. Smart as the old man was, she doubted he would do well as a Minister, despite his talent for politics, his personal philosophies would certainly affect his wartime policies, while with his incredible power, Albus could go around knocking people out, Aurors were generally not skilled enough to take out their opponents painlessly and refraining from seriously injuring their opponents would inhibit their skill and likely get many of them killed.

With that said, Albus Dumbledore was still likely the greatest asset that the Light side of Magical Britain had on their side. Not only his immense magical prowess, which would no doubt be instrumental if they were to win a war, but also his ability to inspire hope in people, not to mention his immense political clout, every bit of which would be required to hold back the ICW and get sufficient aid from them.

Presently, inside her office were the most important members of the light side at the Ministry.

Arthur Weasley, head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, along with a couple other department heads who Amelia wasn't very familiar with, but was confident in their support of the light.

The ICW Team, consisting of Babajide Akingbade, Pierre Moreau, Anu Iyer, and Cyril Cosmos were all present.

Cyril had been heavily bandaged and didn't look like he was in any way ready to be out of the hospital but he had point blank _refused_ not being there and was sitting in a chair in the corner of the room.

Her newly appointed Head Auror, in light of the unfortunate tale of Bromophenol Blue, Rufus Scrimgeour was also present, along with his new deputy, Kingsley Shacklebolt.

The Head Healer from St Mungos, Bromophela Blue (related to Amelia's recently deceased Head Auror Bromophenol) was also present, and particularly furious at recent developments.

The latest person to join their party was Albus Dumbledore himself, along with his own contingent, including the Lord Black, Arcturus, and the Lord Greengrass, Iliad.

There were some suspicious looks cast at the two Lords, of traditionally dark and neutral houses, respectively, but a few smiles and confident looks from Albus later and most people in the room were comfortable with the two Lords.

"We are here," Amelia began, now that the last of her invitees had finally arrived, "To discuss the future of the Ministry of Magic, after the untimely demise of the late Minister Fudge. In the situation that we are in currently, there is no doubt that the Dark side will attempt to install a stooge and block any attempt to put in place any other Minister. Under no circumstances can we allow this to happen, as it would be the same as handing Magical Britain to Voldemort on a platter, there would be no opposition to his rule once the Ministry had been taken over, short of the ICW." at this she gave Babajide a meaningful look.

The Nigerian Wizard stood up, "There is no doubt that the ICW will be shortly taking some action at the most recent developments," he said, "An emergency meeting has been called, the 4 of us as well as Albus will be there. It is very likely that, unless you can find a competent Minister to allay our worried, the ICW will send someone of their own choosing to hold the position until this war is over. You must understand that the ICW's top priority is to stop this war from spreading at all costs, and to shut down Voldemort as fast as possible, and that, as well as the large anti-Britain contingent means that you will have to act quickly to avoid a takeover. I would however ask that you treat that possibility with an open mind, if it does come to having an ICW-appointed Minister, we will do our best to install a competent open-minded Minister who will be willing to work with you and do his or her best to put an end to the war with Voldemort. At any rate, it may not be the best possible situation, but it'd be a whole lot better than any figure appointed by the Dark."

Amelia frowned, "Be that as it may, it is an extremely desperate option, there will be too much pushback to the autonomy of the British being overtaken by the ICW, there would be no trust between our people or our troops, and more would be persuaded to join Voldemort."

Amelia took a deep breath, "In your opinion, who do you think would be the best option to run for Minister, who can conceivably win the vote but also assuage the fears of the ICW." she asked seriously.

Babajide was silent for a long second, giving a glance to his own companions and Dumbledore, all of whom gave him a slight nod.

The Nigerian Wizard looked at Amelia.

"You."

*** **End of Chapter**


	60. A Potter Interlude

**An: It's been a while since we've been with Harry, so here goes this one.**

 ***** Present, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**

It may have been a hectic couple of days outside of Hogwarts, but inside the ancient institute of magic, school plodded on at it's usual pace.

That isn't to say that Hogwarts was boring, of course, but it was for the most part sticking to its usual routine.

Whispers of fear were starting to invade the castle, slowly, but for the moment, the threat of Voldemort didn't quite seem real.

The clique of Slytherins who Harry had mentally dubbed 'The Death Nibblers', made up mostly of Death Eaters' kids, had been acting strangely, but Harry wasn't surprised, what with the return of the Dark Lord and all.

It may not quite have sunk in for a large amount of the population of Hogwarts, but Harry was sure that Voldemort's return was almost too real for the Death Nibblers, considering how intimately most of their parents were involved with the Dark Lord.

The previous day, they seemed more skittish than usual, and the next morning, Harry finally found out why.

As he usually did, Harry woke early to exercise, he met up with Hermione in the common room, and the two best-friends made their way to the Room of Requirement, outside of which, Daphne Greengrass was waiting for them.

"Finally." Daphne said, somewhat impatiently.

Harry focussed less on the sentiment itself and more on the fact that she was comfortable enough to show any emotion in front of him and Hermione at all, feeling happy at the realization.

The group entered the Room of Requirement and exercised for about an hour, Harry leading, as the most experienced with the routines they were following.

After their exercises, they made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

They were relatively early, as they always were, but there were usually at least a dozen or so early birds who came down for breakfast early to enjoy the silence, as well as Albus and Arcturus who were always down early, having discussions over coffee and newspapers, sometimes accompanied by McGonagall, who also made a habit out of coming early to breakfast.

Knowing this, Harry and Hermione were surprised to find that neither Arcturus nor Albus were in the room.

All of the early birds, who were usually divided over their house tables, more often than not, most of them from the Ravenclaw table, but today, Harry found them all huddled at the Hufflepuff table in the middle, sitting _together_ , extremely unusual behaviour.

With a frown, Harry made a beeline for the Hufflepuff table.

"Terry," Harry greeted one of his yearmates in the huddle, "Where're Dumbledore and Black, and what's up with the huddle."

Terry Boot's face was unusually white and he simply handed Harry a copy of the Daily Prophet.

VOLDEMORT ATTACK LEAVES MINISTER FUDGE AND 6 AURORS DEAD, ICW MEMBERS INJURED

Harry didn't bother to read the rest, racing over to Hermione and Daphne, throwing the newspaper at them, "We have to go to Iliad's quarters." he said, as he rushed in the general direction of the Greengrass Lord's temporary room.

His two friends followed him to Iliad's room.

Giving the password, Harry rushed in but found the room empty.

It now seemed obvious that Albus, Arcturus, and Iliad had all gone to deal with the situation.

With a sigh, they returned to the Great Hall, and started eating breakfast, morosely.

As more people filtered in, obliviously happy until they read the newspaper, Harry felt the atmosphere at Hogwarts change.

Voldemort was back.

They knew it before this too, of course, but it had set in.

They were in a war.

The mood continued through the rest of the day, Harry and Hermione went to their classes, and the Professors definitely made an attempt to remain cheery in the face of this disaster, but for the most part they were having a hard time of it, with all the students obviously distraught and unable to really focus on any classwork or anything not related to the Voldemort attack.

Binns seemed to be the only Professor entirely unaffected by the news, continuing to drone on. The only difference was that there was nobody in the class sleeping, everyone using the time to contemplate more _recent_ history.

Snape seemed to be more grim than usual, but continued teaching in his usual style.

McGonagall took one look at the class and her eyes softened.

"Transfiguration," she announced, "is an art which requires a large amount of concentration to do safely and accurately, and I don't think any of us are in a frame of mind to concentrate on it, so we're going to have a different kind of lesson."

"Nym!" McGonagall called a house-elf, "Get a cup of hot chocolate for all the students."

The house-elf did as instructed, and within a quick couple seconds, cups of hot chocolate and biscuits popped in front of all the students in the room.

"This is your chance to speak your mind if you want," McGonagall said, "Whatever it is you want to talk about, although I suspect there is only really one subject we will be encroaching today, just raise your hand and speak, we will all listen and _no-one_ ," at this she looked at the entire class warningly, "will judge. If you wish to just contemplate on your own, you are not required to contribute to this discussion, but I'm afraid school rules require you to stay inside this classroom." the Professor finished.

The rest of the class passed by, as people spoke of their fears and insecurities, a large amount of them, Harry found, had been affected by the previous war, whether it be the loss of a family member or simply something as simple as a family property which had been destroyed by Voldemort.

More still were terrified of wartime, from the stories that they had been told of the horrible times by their parents who had lived through it.

At the end of the lesson, McGonagall looked around at all her students, "I hope you're feeling better now," she said simply, "Chapter 12 from your textbook is for homework."

*** **End of Chapter**


	61. The Winner of the TriWizard Tournament

**An: Well, here's a lightish chapter to round off this untied plot-thread. I realised a bit late that the entire TriWizard Tournament thing would go entirely unused because I pushed up the Return of Voldemort to the first task, so here, at least I got one hopefully-fun chapter out of the rest of the tournament.**

 ***** Breakfast, Great Hall, Hogwarts**

Despite the fast-approaching war, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were still stuck at Hogwarts, held under the threat of losing their magic if they didn't abide by the terms and conditions of the Goblet of Fire.

Harry had wondered whether the tournament would continue considering the events that had taken place. It was obvious that with the apparent power that Voldemort had displayed, it was entirely unsafe to continue holding the TriWizard Tournament, for all they knew, the Dark Lord would just kidnap Harry one more time, and this time, with himself at full strength, would not let Harry get away so easily.

Harry wanted to bring this up with Arcturus or Albus, but both seemed to be perpetually busy, preparing for the war, whether it be through the Ministry meetings held by Madam Bones that Harry had heard rumors of, or training the existing aurors to be actually competent and perhaps of some use in the war.

Their training seemed to be in large part on their own these days, neither Albus nor Arcturus had the time to be training Harry, Hermione, and Daphne.

Daphne's father, Iliad was present of course, though he too seemed to be exceedingly busy, organising the allies of the Greengrass house to help in the war against Voldemort, and gathering contacts to see whether he could glean any information on the plans of the Dark Lord going forward.

He was usually back in the evenings and duelled Harry and even the other two to help them train.

Iliad was truly ruthless, he was far from the skill level of Albus or Arcturus, but he didn't hold back on Harry at all, he fought to his full ability at all times, leading to many painful ass-kickings for Harry.

Harry had asked him about the TriWizard tournament, but the Greengrass Lord had truthfully replied that he had no idea what was going to happen about that.

With this on his mind, Harry went for breakfast to the Great Hall, along with Hermione and Daphne.

Harry noted with surprise that for the first time in quite a while, Arcturus was present in the Great Hall.

It had been quite a while since the Lord Black had made an appearance, his classes usually being covered by the dour and spiteful Severus Snape.

What was slightly more surprising was that he was standing in front of the Headmaster's podium.

Arcturus cleared his throat, "It has been a great honour for Hogwarts to have hosted Beauxbatons and Durmstrang for the TriWizard Tournament," he began, "However the current wartime climate in Magical Britain makes it entirely too unsafe for the TriWizard Tournament to continue. The first task was exploited to kidnap a student of this school and we cannot risk something similar happening to any of the other contestants or Mr Potter himself."

Arcturus paused, watching as murmurs broke across the hall.

"Unfortunately, the Goblet of Fire demands that the terms of its contract be met lest the magic of the competitors be stripped from them. We have to honour the two remaining tasks as well as 1 mandatory ball which must be attended by all of the champions." at this a ghost of a smile spread across the face of the old Lord Black, scarily reminiscent to that of Sirius', "Professor Dumbledore has decided that, to combat this threat as well as bring some much needed levity to this school, the second task of the TriWizard Tournament will be a game of exploding snap, with the immediately following third task will be arm-wrestling. After that, the champion with the most points wins Professor Dumbledore's favourite hat, and an impromptu ball will be held to celebrate their victory."

Not even Harry could keep a straight face at the outlandish proposal, a wry smile playing across the lips of Arcturus himself.

"For round 2 of the TriWizard, can Harry Potter, Fleur Delacour, and Victor Krum please join me?" Arcturus said, waving his wand, causing the 4 house tables to move to the sides, letting the students regard the centre of the hall, where, with another couple deft waves of his wand, a large stage rose from the ground, along with a large table and 3 chairs.

Harry, Fleur, and Victor fought valiantly in their game of exploding snap, but it was only a matter of time till Harry's luck caught up with him and his entire pile of cards exploded up into his face.

Victor went on to win the game of snap, with Fleur coming second and Harry finishing dead last.

However, apparently, he had been awarded full marks for his performance against the dragon, taking all factors, including his kidnapping and escape, into account, which Harry thought was more than a little biased but didn't care enough to contest.

This meant that him and Krum were tied for top spot heading into the third task.

The arm-wrestling competition ended up going far different than Harry thought it would.

Harry himself was obviously quite fit and sufficiently strong, his training wasn't only magical after all, one has to train a good body to have large magical reserves and ability, not to mention the huge advantages it gave him in duels to be just that little bit faster and stronger than his opponents.

Victor Krum was a Quidditch player, which meant his fitness levels were at least far above average, Harry wondered whether he'd be able to best the older boy in the third task.

Fleur Delacour had shown herself to be highly capable of magic, and had impressed Harry quite a bit with her magic, but was nonetheless a very fragile-if-beautiful girl, Harry didn't anticipate her being the strongest of opponents without her magic.

What ended up going down was a little different than imagined.

Harry beat Victor relatively easily, mildly surprised at the weakness of the Quidditch player, who simply shrugged and said, "I play seeker, we do not need to be strong."

What was even more surprising was the fact that Fleur Delacour wiped the floor with Krum, moving onto Harry in a heartbeat.

Harry grasped the hand of the veela, still surprised by Krum's loss, only to find his own hand pinned against the table merely a second later.

"With full points in the third task," Arcturus announced, "Fleur Delacour is the winner of the TriWizard Tournament!"

*** **Later that day**

Arcturus had, on Dumbledore's authority, cancelled the rest of classes that day to make way for the 'impromptu ball' which had taken place.

The Weird Sisters had been brought it to play on very short notice, Harry wouldn't be surprised if they had been slipped a 'little' bribe from Arcturus' nearly limitless pockets (both figuratively and literally).

As the ball came to an end, Harry stood by the Lord Black looking out at the population of Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons.

Harry looked up at Arcturus and spoke softly with a small smile.

"Thank you."

*** **End of Chapter**


	62. Minister Bones

*** **Later**

It had taken much persuasion to convince Amelia Bones that she would be the Light's best shot at installing a Minister for Magic, but that was only the first step in a long and boring political process involved in trying to get Amelia into the Minister's office.

It had been a long and tiresome publicity campaign, and Amelia was running against Lucius Malfoy as well as one third party candidate named Pius Thicknesse.

None of the members of the Light had had Pius on their radar, as a follower of Voldemort or otherwise, but had decided it was probably safer to have Amelia in the top spot rather than an entirely unknown figure.

While Amelia was pretty well-liked as the DMLE head, there were too few people in Magical Britain who followed magical politics enough to know exactly who she was or how competent she was.

Their campaign for the most part involved the war effort, they posed Amelia as the perfect candidate to take Voldemort and the war by the horns, which she, in a sense, was.

Death Eater raids had continued though Voldemort himself hadn't been seen since the attack on the home of Minister Fudge, possibly healing his near-destroyed husk of a body.

Babajide had called for a significant force of aurors from the Nigerian Magical Ministry. The ICW had yet to pass a judgement on the Wizarding War, the motion having been delayed for a month by the combined political force of Dumbledore and Babajide, but they had also yet to provide any forces to aid the war, thankfully, they hadn't been able to call Babajide and his team back, so they were still there, aiding the war, along with a battalion of Nigerian troops, who Babajide had commanded with his incredibly significant influence in Nigeria.

The Nigerian Troops, along with Amelia's own aurors, who were being heavily trained by Arcturus, as well as Babajide, Cyrus, Anu, and Pierre who were all working tirelessly to prevent and fight back against these raids, which were against a variety of Magical settlements, usually not the big hotspots, but just the small places across the country where a large portion of Magical Britain's population resided in small communities.

Publicly, Amelia had been able to take full credit for the admirable fightback against the forces of the Dark Lord. While they hadn't been able to do away with as large a chunk of Voldemort's forces as they would've hoped, due to quick escapes which the Death Eaters were remarkably good at, they had been able to protect and save many a wizarding township, which had earned them a lot of goodwill across Magical Britain.

The election was held just over a month later, and the results ended up being far different than anything the light could have imagined.

Lucius Malfoy seemed to have been ditched altogether, even by the dark faction, having next to no votes at all, far less than he would have gotten simply for being the Dark Lord's candidate.

Pius Thicknesse on the other hand, had gotten a scarily large amount of the vote, it was obvious the dark side had thrown their chips behind him while his own publicity campaign had resulted in a fair few people voting for him.

Thankfully for the light, Amelia had ended with a slightly higher vote-count, just over a hundred votes more than Thicknesse.

*** **Amelia's Office**

Babajide entered with a big smile and a bottle of champagne, "Congratulations Minister Bones!" he said enthusiastically, handing her the bottle of champagne, and waving his wand, creating a bouquet of flowers out of thin air to hand to the new Minister.

Amelia smiled, "I don't want the role and you know it." she said.

"With you in office, we can finally give the ICW a kick to the backside and get some help around here." Babajide said.

"What about you, are you and your team going to stay on in Britain? You've been incredibly useful, we couldn't replace you with anybody."

Babajide laughed, "I would not miss out on this war for anything, worst comes to worst, I would have to retire from the ICW, and request your International Affairs department for an auror visa, with my auror credentials." he said, "I cannot speak for Cyril, Anu, or Pierre, but I have no doubt that they would also wish to stay on here, each one of them is a staunch supporter of the Light, and they have all been drawn into the conflict here, and not one of them is the type to leave a job half-done." he said.

"Of course not." said the voice of Anu Iyer behind him, as the Indian witch entered the room with a grin, and slapped the new Minister on the back, "Congratulations Amelia, I knew you had it in you."

Cyril Cosmos followed the Indian witch into the room, also with a smile, flicking his wand to conjure classes, and unsolicitedly poured himself a glass of Babajide's champagne, "What she said."

Albus was next to arrive, along with Iliad, "Arcturus will be a little late, he's still working your aurors to the bone." he said to explain the Black Lord's absence.

Iliad snorted, "They're all a bunch of weaklings, with a few exceptions, Potter could take out half the bloody department."

"Now now, Iliad, I would like to think of that as as much of a reflection on Harry's skill as of the incompetence of the aurors." Dumbledore said, lightly before offering Amelia a hand, which she shook, "Congratulations Amelia, you have done the Wizarding World a big favour today." he said more seriously, "I hope that this is the turning point of this war."

Amelia smiled, "I hope so too."

"Don't we all." Babajide said, as more members of the Light came into the room, congratulating Amelia before taking a seat.

As Rufus Scrimgeour entered, Amelia walked over to him and handed him a badge.

The Head Auror raised an eyebrow in questioning.

"Congrats Rufus, you're the new head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Amelia said with a smirk.

Rufus' eyes widened, before a smile broke across his face, "Thank you Amelia, I know how important this role is, especially during wartime, I will do my best to continue this fight with the might and intelligence that I know you would."

*** **End of Chapter**


	63. Another ICW Meeting

**An: Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I'm still not very busy, just been sinking hours into Civ6 and reading and stuff.**

*** **International Confederation of Wizards, Emergency Conference**

Albus took his place behind the podium of the Supreme Mugwump and cleared his throat.

"We are assembled here today to discuss the ICW's course of action in the war against Lord Voldemort, considering the recent assassination of the British Minister Cornelius Fudge, and the recent appointment of Amelia Bones in his place." Dumbledore said, "Once again, as a speaker in this debate, I would like to temporarily hand my position as Supreme Mugwump to Babajide Akingbade."

The Aforementioned Nigerian Wizard shook his head, "No, Albus, I would like to speak on this issue as well."

With just a hint of surprise, Albus blinked, "Well then, I temporarily yield my position as Supreme Mugwump to Greek Delegate Cyril Cosmos."

The Greek Wizard nodded his acceptance and took Albus' place at the Supreme Mugwump Podium, "As Albus has already rightly stated, we are here to discuss our actions in light of the happenings in Magical Britain. As head of the ICW taskforce set out to tackle this very matter, I would like to ask Mr Akingbade to give his opinion of the current administration in Britain and his take on what actions this committee should take."

Babajide rose and began his speech, "While the British Ministry in general reeks of the type of corruption that I despise, I have high hopes for their current administration. I shall not speak ill of the dead, but Minister Fudge's wartime policies left much to be desired. I have worked with Amelia Bones in her previous capacity as Head of Law Enforcement where she maintained discipline and which she deployed effectively to combat the forces of Voldemort. In my view, it is undeniable that Amelia Bones is one of the few factors that has kept the British resistance against the control of Voldemort alive and kicking. Her victory in the election means that Magical Britain will continue it's fightback against the Dark Lord and will no doubt cooperate with the ICW as long as it doesn't threaten the country's right to self-govern," at this Babajide gave a long glance at Moutinho, the delegate of Brazil, "I believe that it is high time that the ICW really join this fight, as the British Ministry cannot handle power the likes of which the Dark Lord has and his armies that have recruited not only dark wizards but also the support of the werewolves, vampires, and giants as well as many other dark creatures. I believe that the ICW should send a force of peace-keepers to work alongside the British Magical Ministry, and I would also like to personally volunteer myself to lead the peace-force."

Babajide bowed slightly and sat down as the room burst out in whispers once more.

Moutinho spoke up, "The peace-keepers are meant for exactly that, keeping peace. While they are trained in combat, their main duty is to prevent fighting in places where hostility is prevalent. They have no business doing what is essentially fighting a war."

Albus rose to counter him, "While the delegate of Brazil may be right in his statement that the intent of the peace-keepers is not to propagate fighting and is to maintain the peace, the threat of the Dark Lord transcends British boundaries, the very existence of Voldemort is a threat to peace of any kind in this world, peace-keepers are trained in combat so that they CAN fight back if it is absolutely necessary and it is easy to see that Voldemort will not permit the ICW to remain neutral, it's only a matter of time until this matter escalates to the point where we will be forced to fight him, and it will be far easier to try and nip this in its bud in Britain than let the influence of Voldemort and by extension The Darkness spread all over the world."

The debate continued for a fair bit of time but eventually ended in the favour of Britain.

"We are decided then," Cyril declared, "A force of peace-keepers shall be deployed to Magical Britain under the command of Babajide Akingbade and his taskforce which consists of myself, Indian ex-auror Anu Iyer and frenchman Pierre Moreau."

There was a fair few differing opinions in the ICW who didn't think that sending peace-keepers to the aid of Britain was the best way to progress but they were outnumbered by the number of delegates who supported Britain or at the very least were opposed enough to Voldemort to vote in favour of Babajide's proposal despite whatever misgivings they themselves had to the plan.

Albus breathed a sigh of relief as he had been very afraid of the possibility of the Bones Administration ending up fighting a war on two fronts, against the ICW and the forces of Voldemort which would almost definitely have ended in the government being crushed politically and militarily, despite the resilience of Amelia and her ilk.

Babajide had ended up being invaluable, both politically and magically, providing the edge that Albus hadn't foreseen, keeping the light ahead of where Albus had thought they would be.

The Nigerian Wizard was on their side and would work with Amelia and her aurors, and Albus was sure that under their combined leadership, they were sure to make advancements on the forces of the Dark.

That wasn't to say that Albus wasn't worried for the times that were about to come, he was surprised that Voldemort himself had made very few appearances himself which had certainly helped the Light as for the most part, they didn't have very many wizards who could even hope to hold off the Dark Lord temporarily, Albus himself, along with Arcturus and possibly Amelia herself, notwithstanding.

Still, a victory was a victory, and while they couldn't stop to celebrate their current situation, Albus felt hope spring up.

Hope that they could hold up against the storm that was Voldemort.

Hope that they could win.

*** **End of Chapter**


	64. Assault on the Hogwarts Express

**An: 450 reviews, 800 favourites, AND 1200 follows, it's like milestone day!**

*** **Hogwarts**

For Harry, the seasons seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye.

Along with his schoolwork, his training had also been as intense as ever, mostly under the vigilant eye of Iliad who had been in charge of the training of Harry, Hermione, and Daphne while Albus and Arcturus were busy helping out at the Ministry.

Arcturus' role as Professor of Defence had been taken over by Iliad temporarily while Arcturus was busy honouring other commitments, while McGonagall who had already been doing a bulk of the administration mode just quietly picked up the slack left by Albus, still officially in her role as Deputy Headmistress but for all intents and purposes keeping the school running in Albus' absence.

The war itself had seemed much colder than they had expected, with Voldemort not making a single appearance after his surprise attack on Fudge.

Death Eaters had continued their sporadic attacks on Magical British territories but none of the Inner Circle were ever involved with attacks, sending mostly cannon fodder out to terrorise villages and keep the Death Eater name up, but they didn't really spend any time fighting Amelia's forces, choosing to run away as soon as Aurors arrived on the scene.

With the help of Amelia's policies, pushed through as a wartime Minister, and the competence of Babajide who had basically taken over heading the forces of the Ministry by virtue of Rufus Scrimgeour working in close proximity to him and letting him command the DMLE's forces when necessary, the Aurors' responses to attacks was nearly instantaneous.

As soon as Death Eaters struck, the Aurors were there to fight them off, so the Death Eaters worked fast.

They arrived, sent a few large-scale exploding curses and then high-tailed it.

The Aurors were able to catch a lot of the Death Eaters, but they found that a large amount of them were just random citizens imperiod into doing the bidding of the Death Eaters, sometimes with a small contingent of Death Eaters who had taken the Dark Mark, usually maybe 2 or 3.

Harry himself had only intermittently gotten news on the situation from Arcturus and Albus when they were at Hogwarts, whether for some administrative duty or simply taking a little bit of time off from coordinating the war effort. Other than that, he was largely forced to rely on the news which reported on the raids but not much else.

As May turned to June, Harry found himself feeling more tense.

"Have you noticed," Harry began, as he and Hermione walked from their last class of the day to the Room of Requirement to train with Iliad, "That in first AND second year, Voldemort has always unleashed his 'master plan' in June?"

Hermione frowned, "What kind of crackpot observation is that?"

"It's true though!" Harry protested, "It's like Voldemort follows a school calendar, and look at the situation now, he's done jack squat in the last couple months, maybe he's just been waiting for June!"

"Why would he wait?" Hermione said logically, "You know that he doesn't have to 'bide his time and nurture his power'" she said in air-quotes, "He's already scarily strong and from what Professor Dumbledore has told us, he can brush off injuries easily with the help of The Darkness."

"Yeah, but it's June! Come on, it's like Voldemort primetime!"

Hermione rolled her eyes as Daphne caught up to them from behind.

"Hey" The Slytherin greeted Harry and Hermione.

"Hiya Daphne, what's up?" Hermione asked.

"Not much, what about you?" Daphne responded casually.

"Did you know it's Voldemort Prime Time!"

"...What?"

*** **Hogwarts Express**

Despite Harry's conviction that something would happen in June, the rest of the year passed quite uneventfully.

Harry, Hermione, and Daphne were on the Hogwarts Express, headed back for the summer. Hermione was going back to her parents' place but would be spending a month of the vacation at Black Manor where Harry was returning to.

After the siege on Greengrass Manor, Iliad had basically lived out of Hogwarts, while his wife had been placed in Black Manor on Dumbledore's word. For the summer, him and Daphne would be joining Harry and Sirius at Black Manor too.

The Manor was a large estate that was more than large enough to easily hold a dozen people and still have room to spare, so hosting all the people that would be coming would not be a problem.

Despite the lack of recent attacks, there was a peacekeeper detail on the train in the case of an attack on what amounted to most of the entirety of Magical Britain's children, led by a Greek man named Cyril Cosmos who had introduced himself to the student body at Hogwarts before they left to be contacted in case of any kind of emergency on the train.

Harry knew Iliad was also on the train if his help was necessary, which is why he was not overly worried when he felt the train lurch awkwardly far to the left before magically righting itself.

Hermione let out an "eep!" of surprise and looked out the window to see two dozen Death Eaters on brooms circling the train, taking potshots at the wards that protected the train.

As they peered out the window, a patronus, some kind of owl, Harry noted, burst into their cabin.

Iliad's voice came out of the patronus, "Harry, Hermione, Daph," it began, "We will take care of this situation, we have a very good squad here and backup is on its way as we speak, I know that you will want to help in some way but we have this under control and putting yourself at risk is only going to increase the chance of the Dark Lord himself coming to take control of this matter, something that we are NOT ready to deal with at this moment, so you will stay put, am I understood?" the Greengrass Lord finished sternly.

The patronus faded to nothingness.

Hermione sighed, "Well, I guess we just have to wait for things to be handled then."

Harry smiled mischievously before pulling a piece of parchment out of his bag and folding it into a paper plane deftly before tapping it with his wand and muttering an animation spell before muttering another one that Hermione didn't quite recognise, "Rem Fenestra" before letting it fly out of the window of the Hogwarts express.

Harry pulled out another piece of parchment and used another spell, "Ostende Fenestra" before the page rippled to show a moving view, like a video, from the point of view of the paper plane, or at least the bottom of it which Harry had tapped with his wand.

"We can watch some of the fun." Harry grinned.

The view wasn't quite the best but the plane continued to roughly stay with the train as Harry's magic willed it to be in the general area of the action.

They watched the Death Eaters continue their assault until a similarly sized contingent of flying peacekeepers came to take on the Death Eaters.

Unlike previous operations, however, the Death Eaters didn't retreat or back down at all, instead choosing to confront the peacekeepers head on.

While this new contingent continued to battle the forces of the Dark Lord in the air, the peacekeepers began patrolling the train itself.

One of them popped her head into Harry and co's cabin.

"Keep this door shut and locked with the strongest spell that you know." she instructed calmly, "if you aren't aware of any, go for Janua Bene, it isn't penetrable by the Alohomora charm." she said before exiting and continuing on her way.

Hermione performed the spell on their door while Harry and Daphne continued to stare at the piece of parchment.

The Death Eaters seemed to be doing a fairly decent job against the peacekeepers, but they certainly didn't seem to be gaining any ground, and as more peacekeeper forces seemed to appear, it certainly seemed like the Death Eaters would be forced to retreat or be picked off one by one by the greater forces of the light.

As the battle raged on and more Death Eaters joined to inflate the numbers of their comrades, Harry suddenly heard a loud screech before the train lurched once more, this time towards the right.

Unlike the last time, the train didn't immediately right itself, leading to Harry, Hermione, and Daphne all slipping rightwards along with all their baggage, with the Express just about righting itself with a slow groan before an even harder shock hit it.

Harry willed his paper-plane to fly to the other side of the Express, only to find an even larger Death Eater force, all on brooms, along with someone who could only be the Dark Lord himself, floating alongside the train on what seemed to be a pillar of Darkness.

The Dark Lord raised his arm and an arm of Darkness rose and grasped the train, trying to wrench it off its tracks once again, the magic that held the train en route resisting the push of the Dark Lord, the Express glowing a bright blue, as invisible runes lit up, providing power and the wheels screeched as they were detached from the tracks that they were being tied to by magic.

With a large grunt, the Dark Lord redoubled his efforts, pouring what seemed to be all of the Darkness that he had under his control into the effort to uproot the train, the support that kept him flying reducing to the bare minimum as the train stopped abruptly and began to rock violently as its magic tried to keep it at the very least on its tracks.

As soon as the Express stopped, about a third of the Death Eaters peeled off from the fight with the peacekeepers and beelined for the entrances to the Express, while their comrades continued to hold back the peacekeepers at any cost, many of them being torn down as the peacekeeper forces gained an advantage but weren't quite able to push past the Death Eaters, being forced to deal with them before pursuing the ones who were approaching the train.

Harry watched as the Death Eaters who had gone for the train wrenched open the doors, to be met by more peacekeepers who had been strategically placed at entrances to counter the incoming Death Eaters and met them with a heavy barrage of spells that drove them out of the train, taking down a large number of the Dark Lord's combatants.

Harry smiled slightly as Iliad single-handedly dealt with three of the Death Eaters on his own, even as more tremors wracked the train, the Dark Lord too occupied in his task to aid his own Death Eaters.

Harry's smile wavered slightly, as in an awe-inspiring show of power, the Dark Lord pulled the magical train up and off its tracks, as the wards protecting the Hogwarts Express flickered and went out, simply overpowered by the sheer might of the Dark Lord.

Voldemort set the train down about a hundred metres away from its tracks with a heavy thud, peacekeepers and Death Eaters alike swerving on their brooms to get out of the way of the massive train.

Harry, Hermione, and Daphne braced for impact as the train was set down with a thud. Hermione had the foresight to place a cushioning charm so the three of them didn't feel the worst of the impact like some of the other students on the Hogwarts Express undoubtedly had, probably injuring and/or incapacitating a fair number of the school's students, which was undoubtedly something that the Dark Lord was counting on.

Suddenly, Cyril Cosmos' voice reverberated through the train, his voice magically magnified, "The Dark Lord himself has been spotted outside the Hogwarts Express, and as such our priority has been shifted from repelling this attack and keeping on track to evacuating all students, as such members of my team will come around to portkey you out of here cabin by cabin, if there is a knock on your door, members of my team will follow that up with the password which is 'Elephant', if they do not say that, do NOT let anybody into your cabins, stay calm and we shall evacuate in an orderly fashion"

"This got serious real fast." Daphne said grimly.

However, Harry wasn't listening to her, he was looking at his parchment turned screen.

The paper airplane had flown a little close to the Dark Lord.

Voldemort's red eyes looked straight at the little plane before he lifted a single finger and a tendril of Darkness pulled the piece of folded parchment-origami close to him.

He touched the parchment with a single finger and suddenly the image began flickering before Harry saw an image of himself, Hermione, and Daphne reflected up at him, before it returned to an image of the Dark Lord.

Voldemort smiled, "Harry Potter!" he said with mock excitement before crushing the paper airplane.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: Thanks again for all the milestoney thingies, here's an extra-long chapter as a surprise cool-thing.**


	65. The Big Four

**An: I didn't know before I posted it, but with the last chapter, TIP is past 80k words! Woooooo!**

 ***** Present**

Voldemort's red eyes looked straight at the little plane before he lifted a single finger and a tendril of Darkness pulled the piece of folded parchment-origami close to him.

He touched the parchment with a single finger and suddenly the image began flickering before Harry saw an image of himself, Hermione, and Daphne reflected up at him, before it returned to an image of the Dark Lord.

Voldemort smiled, "Harry Potter!" he said with mock excitement before crushing the paper airplane.

Despite having just pulled the Hogwarts Express straight off its tracks, Voldemort was only the slightest bit winded.

More peacekeeper troops seemed to flood in, helping hold the perimeter of the train, while their compatriots went inside the train.

Realising their plan to evacuate the students, Voldemort smirked, simply waving his hand, installing anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards around the train specifically, if they wanted to escape, they would have to come out of the train.

Seeing his Death Eaters struggle and their numbers dwindle against the might of the peacekeeper force, Voldemort waved a hand, sending a wave of darkness crashing towards the peacekeepers, which was diverted away from the majority of the combatants by a last-minute gust of air from Iliad.

Enraged at the sight of his former possible-recruit, Voldemort sent more tendrils of Darkness at the Greengrass Lord, who seemed to be playing to stall rather than win, diverting the attacks once again, putting a large amount of his magic into ensuring that no-one was injured.

This continued for a solid minute of casual duelling, as Voldemort continued to play with Iliad. Voldemort heard the telltale cracks signaling the arrival of more peacekeepers. They had for the most part stayed out of his way, targeting his Death Eaters, while Iliad kept him at bay, so he didn't pay any mind to the new arrivals until he sensed a spell just about to hit him, which he turned to parry just in time.

The total might of the men gathered before him was enough to make even Voldemort feel apprehensive.

Dressed in peacekeeper garb, Albus Dumbledore, Arcturus Black, Babajide Akingbade and Nicholas Flamel stood before the Dark Lord.

The red sashes on the arms of the four men identified them as commanding officers of the highest possible rank of the peacekeepers, though none of the men really needed it, their very presence enough to command the respect and obedience of the peacekeeper force present.

"Dumbledore!" Voldemort greeted with a mock-smile, spreading his arms wide as if for a hug.

Without another word, the wizened Headmaster acted, far faster than anyone could even imagine for a man his age, his wand flashing as a fissure appeared below Voldemort.

As the very ground collapsed below him, Darkness came from around him to support the Dark Lord who was immediately set upon by a magical assault by Arcturus, Babajide and Albus.

Albus continued to try and lock Voldemort in with rock, moving the earth around him, sending it rushing inwards and trying to get it to bind his opponent into place.

Arcturus and Babajide on the other hand were keeping him occupied with a barrage of spells, that the Dark Lord was using fragments of Darkness to absorb and counter, most of which were incinerated by the bursts of fire being created by Babajide.

While the three kept Voldemort occupied, Nicholas, still under the guise of Pierre, rushed towards the Hogwarts Express, blowing away any Death Eaters who tried to get into his path.

A Death Eater with a golden mask that identified him as one of the Generals of the Inner Circle of Voldemort tried to intercept Nicholas, with the hopes of faring better than his comrades.

A flick of Nicholas' wrist sent a gust of wind to blow his opponent into the mass of peacekeepers who were slowly but surely taking down the Death Eater forces. However, the golden-masked Death Eater batted away the attack with a gust of wind of his own.

Forced to take his opponent seriously, Nicholas went all out from the very start, flinging walls of fire at the golden-masked Death Eater, who surprised Nicholas by managing to slice through the wall of fire just in time to avoid being roasted in an unfortunate (for him) demise.

Nicholas motioned for the other peacekeepers, who had till that point stayed out of his way, to come in and take over the golden-masked Death Eater.

With a parting spell or dozen, Nicholas quickly moved past the golden-masked Death Eater, as a dozen peacekeepers struggled with the task of restraining him.

Meanwhile, the Dark Lord was easily holding his own against his three opponents.

Knowing that they would only hinder the incredibly powerful wizards locked in combat with Voldemort, the rest of the peacekeepers simply stayed out of their way, an unfortunate few still getting caught in the debris that was caused to fly by the battle, causing a few extra injuries and one very unfortunate casualty as a byproduct of the intense duel.

Despite the combined skill of his opponents being greater than his own, Voldemort was managing to fight back on the sheer power of The Darkness.

While spells seemed to be hitting Voldemort, his ragged body was just about able to tank the damage that was being dealt to it while, in response, tendrils of the Darkness lashed out at his opponents aggressively, sometimes being countered, other times connecting.

While invested in the duel, Voldemort was keeping a close eye on the progress of the fourth newcomer, and as he was about to make it to the Express, Voldemort realised what Nicholas had gone to do.

With his many tricks, the famed alchemist could probably generate enough power to break his wards from the inside and evacuate the students.

Just as he was about to block that blasted alchemist, he was hit in the side with a large chunk of rock that Babajide had ripped out of the ground, breaking several of his ribs.

Voldemort gasped for breath as The Darkness enveloped his chest, tightening to hold his body together and more of it dedicating itself to keeping his internals going.

The Dark Lord felt as his wards were ripped through by a wave of powerful magic and he left several presences leave through the hole in the wards that had been created by Nicholas.

Voldemort roared in frustration, and a wave of Darkness emanated from his figure, destroying everything in his path, only slightly inhibited by shields put up by Dumbledore, Arcturus and Babajide.

Swiping his opponents aside, Voldemort sent a large blade of Darkness that tore straight through the train.

After the split second it took for them to finish off his previous attack, Voldemort's opponents were on him with renewed vigour, keeping him tied up in the battle versus them.

*** **End of Chapter**


	66. The Assault Continued

**An: I'm on a 16-hour flight to New York, so let's see how much I can write before I fall asleep from exhaustion.**

 ***** Present**

Swiping his opponents aside, Voldemort sent a large blade of Darkness that tore straight through the train.

After the split second it took for them to finish off his previous attack, Voldemort's opponents were on him with renewed vigour, keeping him tied up in the battle versus them.

The students inside the train found themselves in a variety of differing situations.

Some of the students on the far ends of the Express simply found themselves shook slightly as the blade of Darkness tore the train in two. Others closer to the middle felt the shock far more clearly.

The most unfortunate were those in the middle of the Express. Thankfully there were no casualties of the strike, but there were now over a dozen Hogwarts students in the open, falling out of the carriages on either side of the strike, as half the carriage was obliterated.

Voldemort looked at the results of his strike, and his eyes fixed on one target.

Harry Potter.

*** **With Harry, On the Express**

Inside the Express, the concern of the trio was growing, they no longer had a vantage point on the fighting, and Harry was too worried of Voldemort tracing him again to attempt the same spell another time, so they sat there, attempting to extrapolate the goings on outside the Express from the loud noises of destruction and rattling that seemed to be taking place.

The walls of the train itself seemed to be heavily damaged by the magic beating down on it, the vestiges of the train's magic doing its level best to try and keep the students inside it safe.

Harry, however, knew it was simply a matter of time till the Dark Lord managed to muscle his way into the train.

It had however been announced to the entire train that they were being evacuated and Harry hoped that the peacekeepers could get all the students off before the train was hijacked.

His hopes were to no avail, however, as a large shudder shook the train before the entire carriage rolled over onto its side, one wall being ripped right off in a blur of Darkness which cut straight through their carriage.

Harry had managed to sustain no injuries in the tumble but he looked over to see Hermione nursing her head which had been knocked against one of the suitcase racks.

Seeing that Daphne was mostly okay, Harry cast a quick pain-numbing spell on Hermione's head, before dragging the bushy-haired girl out of the broken remains of their train carriage, Daphne following suit, not trusting the train cabin to not fall in on itself after the beating it had taken.

Harry immediately regretted his decision as he finally saw the Dark Lord for the first time since the graveyard. Voldemort was far more terrifying than he had been the last time the two had met, it was clear that the Darkness had vastly increased his level of power.

Despite the large distance between the two wizards, Harry immediately had his wand out to defend himself, he knew the Dark Lord could cover the hundred or so metres between them in less than a second if he so wished.

As shadows gathered around Voldemort, ready to spring him at Harry, the boy-who-lived said his final prayers, knowing that he was nowhere near ready to take Voldemort on.

Voldemort sprang, spells already coming out of Harry's wand in his defense. Just before Voldemort hit his enemy straight on, he was sent off course by a large gargoyle made out of rubble slamming into him and crashing him into the ground.

Harry breathed a heavy sigh of relief as his Headmaster limped out of the crater in the ground that Voldemort's last strike had created.

Nevertheless, the Dark Lord sprung back up, speeding at Dumbledore, only to run right into a serpent of fire which enveloped him.

The fiery snake burst apart as the Darkness extruded from the body of Voldemort to obliterate the fire threatening to burn Voldemort's body to a crisp.

Arcturus and Babajide also emerged from the crater, seconds after Dumbledore himself, and Harry watched with barely concealed awe as two of his mentors took on Voldemort himself along with the help of Babajide.

The three of them together seemed to be able to hold Voldemort at bay, even with the powers of The Darkness which seemed to make him nigh invincible.

The Darkness offensive, consisting mostly of shards of Darkness, as well as knives and other creative tools of destruction was held off by Babajide, who used his considerable might mostly defensively, fighting the Darkness with fire for the most part.

Arcturus and Dumbledore, meanwhile, attacked Voldemort with all that they had. Dumbledore's decades of experience came into play as he put his all into defeating his enemy, Arcturus no less vicious as he too went at it as hard as he could.

Harry was pulled out of his stupor at the intensity of the battle by Hermione screaming his name.

Harry looked up just in time to see the last of a dozen or so peacekeepers be murdered in cold blood by a golden-masked Death Eater.

Despite feeling sick to his stomach, Harry couldn't take the brutality of the Death Eater's actions and despite his intuition screaming at him to escape, Harry engaged the Death Eater, sending spells rocketing at his opponent at astonishing speeds.

Harry immediately realized that fighting the Death Eater who had taken down a dozen peacekeepers all on his own was probably not a good idea, this only being highlighted by the Death Eater casually flicking away all of Harry's spells before doing something Harry had never seen be done before.

The Golden-Masked Death Eater waved his wand in an arc around his body and electricity crackled into being around the tip of his wand.

The Death Eater directed his wand at Harry and what could only be described as lightning came from Harry's opponent's wand.

Unsure of the best way to counter this, Harry simply sprung out of the way, sending a strong push of air at the Death Eater, continuing his barrage of spells, backed up by Hermione and Daphne, both of whom also began firing at Harry's opponent to increase the volume of spells that he had to contend with.

Despite this as well as Harry's elemental attacks, the third-year found himself immediately on the back foot.

Other peacekeepers who tried to come to Harry's aid were held off by other Death Eaters, and Dumbledore who had noticed Harry's plight had paid for his moment of distraction with a long cut across his chest, the Dark Lord not letting him escape the fight to go to Harry's aid.

The Golden-Masked Death Eater had Harry on the ropes, and was just about to pin Harry down, but was blocked just in time by a peacekeeper who managed to break through the Death Eaters who had been blocking the peacekeepers from interfering with the takedown of Harry so far.

"What were you thinking!" the peacekeeper snapped, and Harry realized that it was the same peacekeeper who had come to tell them to lock their cabin doors on the Express, just several minutes prior.

"Thank you, Ms, uh, Ms Peacekeeper." Harry stammered out.

Said peacekeeper rolled her eyes, "Kaira Wilder." She introduced herself briefly before throwing herself into the battle against the Golden-Masked Death Eater. She didn't seem to be remarkably stronger than Harry himself but seemed to be faring far better in the battle.

While she battled the Golden-Mask, the other peacekeepers surrounded Harry, Hermione and Daphne and made to escort them back inside the safe part of the train, as was being done with all the students who had fallen out of the train.

"A man named Pierre Moreau is the only one who is able to apparate in and out of here." One of the peacekeepers briefed the trio, "He is taking students in groups of three and apparating them out of the danger zone into a safe location.

Harry nodded his understanding, already having been told by the Headmaster that Pierre was simply a guise for Nicholas Flamel, who Harry was quite familiar with, it frankly not surprising him that the famed alchemist could apparate through the wards which inhibited virtually the rest of all wizardkind.

The Dark Lord quickly noticed that his prey was escaping and he stuck his three opponents in place by sticking their feet into the ground which some niftily transfigured magical quicksand.

The Dark Lord magicked himself into existence in front of the peacekeepers and all five of the men surrounding Harry had been murdered in a variety of gruesome ways in less than a second.

The Dark Lord sent a weak (by his standards) cutting curse at Harry, which the younger combatant just about managed to absorb the impact of into his wand, struggling to keep a hold of it and return fire.

Tendrils of Darkness fought the other three opponents of the Dark Lord, keeping most of the Darkness occupied, Voldemort taking Harry without its help and still toying with the gifted boy.

Despite his great talent, the boy-who-lived couldn't even hold a candle to the Dark Lord.

It didn't take much time for Voldemort to get bored of his plaything, and he raised his wand to finish Harry off once and for all.

In a display of courage, the peacekeeper Kaira Wilder jumped at the Dark Lord, having just managed to take down the Golden-Masked Death Eater after an intense duel that left her with several scrapes and cuts.

Unable to help any other way, she jumped on the Dark Lord, managing to wrestle his wand from his hand and pointing her own wand in the Dark Lord's chest.

Just as she fired off a non-verbal spell, Voldemort called all of the Darkness back to himself to protect him from Kaira's assault.

The Darkness took the brunt of the assault from Kaira before Voldemort simply blew her off his torso.

He looked ready to kill Kaira for daring to attack him, but one look at the despair on Harry's face made Voldemort reconsider his decision.

With a sick smile on his face, Voldemort cast the imperius curse on the peacekeeper, taking control of her body, just as Albus, Arcturus, and Babajide, no longer hindered by the Darkness, all struck him with their own attacks, driving him into the ground.

Harry tried to shout a warning about Kaira and the Imperius curse to his mentors but he was unable to as Kaira began fighting him, clearly not much stronger but her sheer skill being enough to give her the upper hand versus Harry.

With Hermione and Daphne, however, Harry managed to get a decent blow in in the form of a gash on the shoulder of the peacekeeper.

Kaira shrieked, the pain numbed only to an extent by the imperius curse.

The pain caused the curse to flicker as Kaira's eyes showed the horror she held at her own actions for a second before she attacked the trio once again, this time with a heavily injured shoulder.

After getting that shot in, Kaira was obviously impaired and couldn't fight at her fullest ability, but Harry refused to injure her anymore, drawing out the fight despite knowing that he should do what he had to do and do his worst to the peacekeeper who had saved his life twice over and escape, hell, that was probably what Wilder herself would have wanted him to do.

Just then, Voldemort was crushed by a large elephant courtesy of Dumbledore, and his connection to the Imperius became tenuous enough that, combined with Kaira's willpower, was enough for the female peacekeeper to overcome the unforgivable curse.

Kaira put her horror at her own actions at the back of her head and turned to protect the three children, despite her injured shoulder clearly playing havoc on her combative capability.

She hung in there doggedly, managing to sloppily catch a Death Eater with a well-placed piercing curse.

Harry rushed to support her as she staggered but Wilder waved him off, "Get inside, the other peacekeepers will take you to Moreau and he will get you out of here, you're students, do NOT go against my orders!"

Despite feeling horrible about it, Harry and co tried to follow her orders, only to be blocked by more Death Eaters.

Harry, Hermione, and Daphne engaged them, doing pretty decently considering that their opponents were only relatively low-level lackeys who had power in numbers but numbers that were being slowly overcome by Harry and co.

Kaira stepped in with a few useful spells that finished the battle easily.

"Get inside!" she barked, just as Voldemort stepped out of the Darkness next to her, looking bored as Albus, Arcturus, and Babajide were all flung in different directions by a shockwave of Darkness.

"You pesky rat," he said to Kaira, as if scolding a child who had been bad, "You threw off my Imperius when I was having so much FUN controlling you!" he continued, "Now you have outlived your usefulness"

With a flick of his wand, Kaira was under the Cruciatus curse, shrieking and screaming as unimaginable pain racked her body.

Harry kept running as he heard the valiant peacekeeper's screams become steadily weaker until they tapered off altogether.

Nicholas was waiting inside the door of the Express, looking extremely weak and holding onto a risk with a ruby embedded in it, drawing some kind of power from it. He held out a hand which the trio grabbed.

Just before they left, Harry heard Voldemort incant the dreaded syllables.

"Avada Kedavra!"

He didn't need to turn to see Kaira's body hit the ground to know she had passed.

*** **End of Chapter**

 **An: I was kinda hoping to write more but this was a really good place to end this chapter so here, this chapter is pretty long as it is, I do hope you enjoyed.**

 **An2: Okay, so, it's been a day(ish) since I wrote this chapter. As I might have mentioned, I was on an airplane here. While I will have internet access while here (so I COULD upload a chapter if I end up with enough time to write one), I will likely have too many things to do to write much over the next couple weeks until the flight back home. Also, by the end of this chapter, I was taking naps between paragraphs so I don't know how well it's turned out, but I hope you enjoy nonetheless.**


	67. The End of the Assault

***** Black Manor, Later**

Nicholas, under the guise of Pierre Moreau, had brought Harry, Hermione, and Daphne back to Black Manor where Sirius was waiting for them, before returning back to the Hogwarts Express to fetch more students.

The three of them had found that Nicholas had brought the other kids from the Express to the Manor as well, because of the formidable wards which the Dark Lord could not easily scale an attack upon with his forces tied up with the Express, as well as the large expansive estate, where they had been able to set up several large wizarding tents for the students to rest up and stay in temporarily until they could organise safe travel to their own homes.

Sirius had been very disappointed that he'd been disallowed to fight, but his role in organising and managing the escape of the students to Black Manor was instrumental to the defence nonetheless.

A few hours later, as more and more of the students had made their way to Black Manor, they got news from Dumbledore, communicated via Nicholas as Pierre, that the Dark Lord had retreated, but only after totalling the entire 1-mile radius of the fight in his rage and frustration at his loss to strike the Wizarding World where it hurt the most, their children.

Apart from this, there was very little news for Harry, Hermione, and Daphne, all of whom were desperate to hear anything of the disastrous attack on the Express.

Nicholas hadn't been able to stick around for long, having to leave immediately to lend his magical prowess to the cleanup of what had essentially turned into a warzone.

Harry, in particular, was especially torn up by the lack of any kind of news. He already felt extremely guilty for the death of the peacekeeper who had essentially given her life to save them, despite knowing there was nothing he could have done except give Voldemort his own life in addition to that of his defender.

Harry didn't do much as the day just seemed to pass by, Hermione and Daphne dropped into his room for a bit and they talked about their experience the previous day but the two girls both retired to their own rooms in the Manor after a while.

It was nearly a full day later that Sirius felt the wards alert him that Albus Dumbledore had entered the wards of Black Manor.

"Harry, Hermione, Daphne!" the unruly Black called out, "Dumbledore will be arriving shortly, get yourselves down here, unless you WANT to remain in the dark."

Sirius was momentarily blinded as a bright flash of light filled the entire house, most likely the doing of Harry.

"Goddamnit Harry, that was a metaphor!" Sirius shouted up, rubbing his eyes as his sight returned to him, happy that Harry wasn't too stuck up in brooding to be himself.

Sirius shrugged on his own robes, making his way down to the entrance hall, about the same time as Harry, the girls trailing behind him a bit.

Sirius had just about acciod himself two glasses, a bottle of firewhiskey, and a couple butterbeers, when he heard his doorbell ring.

Quickly doling out the firewhiskey into the glass with very generous pours, Sirius carried the two glasses with him to the door, sending a mental command to the wards to swing open the doors.

As the doors opened, Sirius grinned widely, spreading his arms with the two glasses of golden liquid in them expansively as if he were looking for a hug.

His grin faded slightly as he saw Albus looking the worst he'd ever seen the wizened Headmaster seem in all his years. Albus usually had an ageless aura to him, but his age seemed to be hanging heavy on him.

Albus gave a small smile nonetheless, despite his half-destroyed battle robes, which he hadn't had a chance to change out of, and the heavy bags under his eyes, indicating that he'd been too busy with the fight and then the cleanup and then the inevitable politics to catch a wink.

"Sirius!" Albus greeted, the familiar warmth of his tone reassuring Sirius slightly.

He heard a small gasp from next to him as Harry finally walked up to the door and looked at the state of his mentor.

"Ah Harry, it's good to see you well," Albus said, "Forgive me for the abrupt departure from your company but I need to freshen up a bit before we can discuss yesterday's events at enough length to do their severity and complexity any justice."

"Of course, Albus, I'm sure you can make your way to your room." Sirius said, gesturing in the vague direction of the guest room that had been specifically set aside and stocked for the use of the Headmaster.

Nodding his thanks, Albus made his way to his room.

By this time, Hermione and Daphne had made their way down to the hall.

"Well, make yourselves comfortable in the living room, I guess," Sirius said, "I'll organise some snacks and get Kreacher to fix dinner."

Nodding their consent, Harry, Hermione, and Daphne made their way to the opulent living room of Black Manor, where they each chose one of the cushy sofas and sat down.

Sirius joined them, having brought out a small platter of sorts to much on.

After a slightly longer while, during which the four people already in the living room continued to chat, Albus made his way to their location as well, looking far better than he had a half hour previously.

The bags under his eyes were still apparent, but he had cleaned up into casual clean robes and healed some of his injuries which had gone ignored by the healers who only healed the major injuries before moving onto others who needed the healing more than he did.

"You holding up, Professor?" Sirius asked while Harry just looked at his mentor expectantly.

"As well as can be expected," Albus said cheerfully, "But I think what you really want to inquire about isn't just my health."

Sirius sighed, "How bad was it?" he asked.

The Headmaster's face turned grave, "To be completely honest, the entire operation went about as well for us as it could have, we know that the Dark Lord is incredibly powerful and his forces are if anything, larger than we expected. We managed to keep the entire student body alive but it was at a great cost, we lost over three dozen peacekeepers and more than twenty British aurors. I don't think that we can risk something like this happening again, we will have to ship all the students straight back to Hogwarts from here, even scattered at their homes, too many of them are all too vulnerable under their own protections and striking the young would be a great victory for Voldemort."

*** **End of Chapter**


	68. Back to School again

*** **Summer**

Harry looked down at the letter which had been delivered to Sirius by owl.

 _Dear Esteemed Parent,_

 _I hope you are holding up well in these hard times, and have been able to keep yourself safe._

 _I am certain that by now, you have heard of the attack on the Hogwarts Express, and are no doubt worried for the safety of your children. Fear not, for we were able to evacuate every single student at Hogwarts in time to get them to a safe location which will remain undisclosed for security reasons._

 _Hogwarts would like to take a moment of silence to honor all 37 peacekeepers and 23 aurors who lost their lives in the defense of the Express._

 _In lieu of this incident, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Magic, has decided to offer board for all students over the summer. As you know, Hogwarts is one of the safest locations in Britain, and if The Dark Lord is truly committed to striking the children of the Wizarding World, which he seems to be, then we need to keep our children as safe as we possibly can._

 _Therefore, we will be portkeying all students back to Hogwarts, where they will reside over the summer._

 _If you wish to withdraw your student from Hogwarts over the summer, you will have to send a letter requesting such, and a member of staff will apparate you just outside of Hogwarts' gates, where you may retrieve your child, however, we implore you to let your child remain at Hogwarts, as it is undoubtedly the safest place for them to be,_

 _Yours,_

 _Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

 _Headmaster of Hogwarts_

Harry put down the letter.

He had wanted to stay with Sirius over the summer, but Albus had told him that he too had to return to Hogwarts along with the rest of the students.

Not only did they not want it to seem like he was getting special treatment, the Headmaster had said that they could continue his training far more easily inside of Hogwarts, as at least one of the Headmaster, Arcturus, or Nicholas would be inside the walls of the ancient castle at all times, as they couldn't leave the school without at least one wizard who could stand up to the Dark Lord at any time.

All the students were being port-keyed one by one, a member of staff, and one student going at a time so that they wouldn't all be in danger if a single portkey was hijacked.

It was a boring if necessary process, as the Hogwarts staff spent the afternoon transporting Hogwarts students back to the famed castle.

As he watched the students being evacuated from his window, Harry heard a knock on his door.

"Come in"

An Auror who Harry was not familiar with walked into the room, "C'mon Potter, it's your turn"

*** **Hogwarts**

Iliad cleared his throat in front of the Defence class that he had hastily been assigned to lead, "So year three-"

A student raised his hand.

"Yes, Mr Zag?"

"We graduated third year like three days ago"

"Well then, Welcome back, newly christened fourth years-" He started again, before being interrupted by the same student.

"Fourth year doesn't start for another two..." The student pointed out unhelpfully, once more before being scared into silence by the deathly glare being sent in his direction by the irritated makeshift Defence Professor.

"Year three and a half," Iliad began, more forcefully this time with an implied warning in his voice, "While this is an unexpected lesson, and therefore I do not have any sort of lesson plan prepared for you, I think that all of you are sorely in need of some rudimentary battle training, considering our circumstances."

The class quieted down, the reminder of their situation bringing them down from the buzz that the pointless interruptions had brought them.

"So Imma pair you kids off into pairs and let you spar."

Iliad looked down at his class, which consisted of Gryffindors and Slytherins, the two houses which were far too volatile to be trusted with sparring each other in such an exercise.

He paired them up within their houses until he came across the issue of the fact that both houses had an odd number of students, leaving him requiring at least one inter-house pair.

With a little bit of reluctance, he looked at the two houses, which brought a relief, as he was able to pair up his own daughter with Harry.

Both houses looked upon the pair with thinly veiled interest, as Daphne, with a flicker of surprise quickly passing over her face, put on a sneer as she faced Harry, her wand casually flicking up to face the young Potter boy.

Harry had a small frown on his face, as he too held up his wand, the end of it glowing slightly as he faced Daphne.

The two had a barely perceptible conversation between themselves, before both started their duel flashily, not quite going all out, but putting a lot more power into their attacks than one would have thought they would considering their situation.

As their duel became steadily more intense, most of the other students stopped their own duels, to stare upon the large duel occurring right in the middle of the room, which had become so intense that Iliad had put up small wards around them to protect the other students.

As the two houses began to take sides, Draco sneeringly jeering at Harry, while Ron and the other Gryffindors put down the young Potter's Slytherin opponent, Iliad began to frown further, wondering as to the purpose of the two contestants.

With spell-chains and elements flying in all directions, Harry and Daphne were both putting each other through the paces.

The two contestants were looking at each other, Harry was signaling her with his eyes to lose, to show in front of the entire grade, that the light would win over the dark.

Daphne looked back, her eyes unyielding and unwilling to lose.

Harry went all out for the first time, putting his full force into a final attack.

Daphne stared him down and raised her wand to defend.

*** **End of Chapter**


	69. Summer v3

***** Present**

The two contestants were looking at each other, Harry was signaling her with his eyes to lose, to show in front of the entire grade, that the light would win over the dark.

Daphne looked back, her eyes unyielding and unwilling to lose.

Harry went all out for the first time, putting his full force into a final attack.

Daphne stared him down and raised her wand to defend, just barely managing to avoid being blown into the wall, instead, managing to skid back a few steps and counter, holding out against Harry for all she was worth, lashing back at the boy with all the force she could muster.

As Harry raised his wand again, another vicious spell no doubt at the tip of his wand, he found it flying out of his hand.

The young Potter looked at his opponent only to see Daphne wandless as well.

"I think that's quite enough, Daphne, Potter." Iliad said coolly, sending both of his students a look that promised that they were in trouble after the rest of the class had left.

Done with the dueling time, Iliad quickly set up dummies for the entire class to practice on, and they spent the rest of the lesson trying out all the spells they knew on the magically animated dummies which imitated human reactions.

At the end of the lesson, Iliad looked down at the temporary schedule he had been assigned, "I don't think you have any more classes for the rest of the day, there are some Quidditch activities which will be taking place this afternoon if any of you would like to participate in that, and I believe the Exploding Snap club has received permission to operate over the summer break already, so any members may attend their meetings following the same schedule as the regular school year. Feel free to relax as you like on the school premises, no rule breaking." Iliad finished before giving his daughter and Harry a look, "Daphne and Mr Potter, please stay back a few minutes after the end of the class, I would like to have a chat with the two of you."

Harry and Daphne nodded their understanding, waiting for the rest of the class to empty out before approaching their professor's desk.

"What was that?" the older Greengrass asked simply, "What was the point of that dangerous and reckless show that will have half the Slytherins in this class running to their mamas and papas with this information, who will undoubtedly pass on the magnitude of your strength to the Dark Lord?"

"Well," Harry started, "I wanted to show that The Light was clearly stronger than The Dark by beating the witch who is by far the strongest person in Slytherin right now."

Daphne glared back at him, "Like hell, I'd go down for such a stupid reason. As it is, the Greengrass family is not really seen as any kind of bastion of The Dark, and at the rate that things are going, there's no way we're even going to be able to stay neutral. We're going to be forced to declare our alliance with The Light publicly, especially after the attack on our Manor."

"Well, I thought-" Harry began.

"It doesn't matter what you thought, that was a bad move Potter, you're good but you're in no place to be getting cocky," Iliad said before getting up and drawing his wand, pointing it at his two students, "Come, show me whether there's anything behind that attitude of yours or whether it's all just hot air." the Greengrass Lord challenged.

What ensued was yet another furious duel. With Daphne at his side, who was intimately familiar with her father's fighting style, and he himself beginning to get a grasp on the powers that Iliad wielded, Harry, along with Daphne, was able to go toe to toe with Iliad for several minutes at his full strength.

While still pretty restrained from using the exact full extent of his powers in order not to shoot anything lethal at the two kids, Iliad used the extent of his magic and ability in the duel, and when Daphne was hurtled into a wall (which had been cushioned for the purpose of the duels taking place in the preceding class), and stupefied into unconsciousness, her mind faded to black with a sense of satisfaction.

After Daphne fell, it was only moments till Harry was taken out too, both of the children being awakened by Iliad after the end of the duel.

"Still weak," he commented dryly, but even Iliad couldn't block the small smile of pride that stretched across his face for a slight moment before he sent the two children off.

*** **Summer at Hogwarts**

Training with Iliad continued over the course of the summer, Hermione joined Harry and Daphne in the training as well.

By the end of the summer, the three of them could keep Iliad at bay almost indefinitely, almost always losing out to his greater stamina, but together being at par with the man, infrequently winning duels with some lucky shots in, but usually falling after stretching out the duel for any longer than half an hour.

While Iliad was not the strongest wizard out there, he was certainly still accomplished, and even standing on the same level as the seasoned Greengrass duelist was quite an achievement for 3 students barely about to start their fourth year, and already surpassing even the best that Hogwarts' seniors had to offer.

On the front of the war, there continued to be little progress for either side, as without Voldemort making an appearance, the forces of The Light continued to be just about enough to push back the relentless seemingly random attacks that The Dark kept on executing.

Albus and Arcturus were also usually busy, making only a handful of appearances at Hogwarts, leaving Iliad in charge of maintaining security, and poor Minerva in charge of handling the administration of the school as well as teaching several transfiguration classes, including recreational transfiguration workshops that she held for the students over the summer of her volition.

While their forces were very stretched, The Light had suffered very few casualties since the attack on the Hogwarts Express, and there was no doubt in the minds of anybody that The Dark Lord was planning something major, but nobody had any idea exactly what the insane wizard would do.

Assassinate Amelia Bones like he did Cornelius Fudge?

Attempt a siege on Hogwarts?

Storm the Ministry of Magic?

*** **End of Chapter**


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